Plan B
by Fishelle
Summary: "In order to put Tilly back into her place and make her hurt or humiliated or whatever, the answer is simple – seduce Austin Moon." / Or, Austin is sick of Tilly mistaking a 'no' for a 'yes'. When the opportunity arises to give her a firm 'no', will he take it? / OR, fake dating shenanigans. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally (clearly, otherwise all of this would be canon?) and I'm in no way affiliated with Disney.**

 **Word Count: 4 415**

 **A/N: Hi, everybody! So, I actually started this fic before I started "And It Smells Like Coffee", so it's technically my** _ **first**_ **Austin and Ally fic. Crazy, right?! Anyway, so this is only going to be 14 chapters, since I've done a chapter-by-chapter plan this time and I'm actually organised for once. I plan on updating this once a week, but if you whip out the begging and I get insane amounts of reviews for a chapter I might give you multiple updates within the week since I've already written up to chapter 7 ;) This chapter, and the next one too, are going to be quite a bit shorter than my usual chapters since they're mainly introductory, but once our story really gets started, I promise you all much longer chapters.**

 **For this chapter, and the next one, the first section (before the page break) is just introducing you to the characters, since this** _ **is**_ **an AU and their stories are slightly different from the regular show. After the page break, the actual story starts, though. Same with the next chapter. After that, though, it's just straight story. Yay. If you want to skip the boring, introductory bits where I just quickly go over their backstory and personalities, just find the page break and start from there. They're not very OOC in this AU. Anyway, I'm rambling, but let's go. On with the story!**

* * *

Ally Dawson was anything but extraordinary.

That wasn't to say that she thought herself ordinary, because she didn't really believe anybody was 'ordinary'. To her, each person had their own little quirks and stories which made them interesting. There were some people, however, that lived extraordinary lives, filled with adventure, adrenalin, and superfluous wealth. Ally was yet to meet somebody 'extraordinary', but she would be the first to admit that most people were amazing or incredible in their own special way.

Ally was a sweet girl – anybody could see that. Generally, anybody who was able to have a conversation with her that went beyond the routine 'hello, how are you?' could tell that she was the sort of person to bring home to their parents, to prove that not all their friends behaved as though they were randy goats. She was polite and well-behaved, but perhaps a tad more reserved than the average person, preferring books to people, most of the time. It was arguable that this was due to the fact that her parents had gotten divorced when she was quite young, and she had withdrawn a lot. Her mother had begun to travel the world, but the two kept in touch and had a very strong bond. Her parents were on excellent terms, despite being divorced, and Ally stayed with her father most of the time. She loved each parent equally, and strived for perfection so that she could at least be the perfect child her parents had clearly wanted to raise.

On the surface, she certainly appeared to be perfect. Perfect grades, perfect smile, perfect figure, perfect employee at her father's music store – heck, she even participated in any club that her father's wallet and her physical abilities would allow. She had a charming disposition and the sort of singing voice that could dissolve any cocky and arrogant person to mere splutters and speechlessness. One might even call her a 'Mary Sue', but anybody who had seen her dance would agree that she was most certainly _not_ good at everything she did.

Only two people, besides her relatives, had been able to break into her shell and really get to know her. It wasn't terribly hard to do so – it was more of an eggshell than a barrier, but only two people had pushed hard enough to break their way in. Ally was certainly an enigma, and didn't generally hold conversations for longer than required unless the other participant was particularly persistent. Trish de la Rosa, best friend since kindergarten, and Kira Starr, best friend since middle school, had been able to crack that eggshell surrounding Allyson Dawson, and ever since, they had joined in rebuilding that shell until somebody else was able to crack their way in.

Trish was the sort of girl who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. She was loud and rude, and the opposite of Ally in so many ways. It was always a mystery to onlookers how the shy, quiet bookworm and the confident, loud socialite had ever become friends, but the pair had been together ever since Kindergarten, and weren't going to stop simply because society found it unusual.

Kira was the sort of girl who would show somebody all sorts of different possibilities available to them. She would never force anything upon anybody unless she truly thought that it was for the best, and she always tried her best to be kind. She was sweet and kind like Ally, but loud and confident like Trish.

The three girls sat together at lunch, despite the fact that Trish and Kira were each popular enough to sit with whoever they wanted. In fact, Kira was the co-captain of the cheer squad, and each day, was invited to sit with the squad. She had always chosen Ally and Trish over them, since they had been her friends for far longer, and she generally preferred their company. Trish often encouraged Ally to talk to other people, to claim the popularity that she could so easily get if she just looked up from a book long enough to take it, but Ally always preferred to 'fly beneath the radar'. She didn't need the validation of her peers to feel good about herself. She knew she was a good person, and she knew that she could have more friends if she really tried.

They were in their senior year, and Ally didn't see much point in making friends now. Especially since she had plans to move away from the warm beaches of Miami and to the cool bustle of New York City once she graduated. She had to maintain her perfect grades, and did various extracurriculars in hopes of getting a scholarship to her dream university – the Music University of New York. Several other colleges and universities had offered her scholarships for the same degree, but she had her heart set on MUNY. One day, she hoped to become a professional musician, the kind that could inspire young people and make their situations seem just a little bit easier.

Ally Dawson was not extraordinary – but she did have extraordinary dreams.

* * *

The bell chimed cheerily, signalling the end of class and the beginning of lunch, and several people groaned loudly as the _zip_ of backpacks and pencil cases and the _click-clack_ of binders opening and closing filled the air, accompanied by noisy chatter from students and the teacher raising her voice to be heard over the humdrum as she tried to relay the homework that was due tomorrow. Only one girl remained patiently in her seat until her teacher had finished speaking, and as she packed up her things (after neatly writing the homework down in her planner), the teacher smiled and mouthed 'thank you, Ally', as though having one student who paid attention made the whole job worthwhile.

Ally hopped up from her seat and slung her backpack over one shoulder, hugging her heavy binder to her chest as she carefully navigated her way through the crowd and out the room. As the crowd moved along sluggishly, she impatiently drummed her fingertips against the brightly decorated exterior of her binder, before she finally found herself in front of the set of lockers. They were set out so that there was a row of lockers on top, and a row of lockers on the bottom. As Ally reached up and fiddled with the dial, aided by the extra height of the heels she wore, she finally opened her locker door and the same question that she asked herself each day filtered through her mind.

 _Why would they give such a high locker to such a short person?_

The middle of her locker was about eye level with her, but she couldn't reach the top shelves in the locker due to her height. She had asked for a locker change before, but the office staff had never gotten around to it, and now that Ally was in her senior year, she didn't see much point in getting it changed. She pulled her textbooks out of her backpack, and slotted it into the shelf that she was exactly eye level with, making sure it was secure. She shut her locker, and then happily turned on her heel, ready to stroll to the cafeteria without the added weight of her heavy textbooks. Luckily, her last class of the day was music, and the teacher always had spare textbooks in the room, so the students weren't required to lug around the thick book.

When Ally spun around, however, she found herself face-to-face with Marino High's co-head cheerleader; Tilly Thompson. She bit her lip to stop herself from groaning – in all honesty, the short brunette was sick of having to deal with the crazy blonde's antics, after knowing her for almost thirteen years during the course of her schooling career. Each encounter was the same – Tilly would say something rude that she thought was hilariously witty, Ally would roll her eyes, and continue on without being affected. She knew why Tilly constantly attempted to bully her, and it was quite pathetic, so Ally had long ago decided to be the bigger person and let the blonde take out her weird, freaky grudge out on her in a harmless yet annoying fashion.

"Those heels don't even help you reach the top of your locker," Tilly sneered, and a few sophomore girls behind her chorused, _'yeeeaah_.' It was clear that they had recently joined the cheerleading squad, and were eager to please the co-captain, who happened to be one of the most popular and well-known seniors in the school.

"I hadn't noticed. Thanks for that," Ally responded dryly, before attempting to push past her.

Of course, Tilly wasn't having any of that. She clamped down a perfectly manicured hand onto Ally's shoulder, smiling as her sophomore minions crowded around the short girl, clearly trying to intimidate her. Ally rolled her eyes, before folding her arms across her chest and leaning against her locker, a perfectly plucked eyebrow arching as she motioned for Tilly to expand on whatever so-called _cutting_ remark she had planned.

"I would have thought you were wearing them for practicality, since they're clearly not for aesthetics. I mean, they make your ankles look fat and swollen and your legs look stumpy."

"Luckily for me, my ankles _aren't_ fat and swollen, even if they look that way, but thank you for the concern," Ally responded in a monotone, a clearly bored expression on her face.

The blonde girl opened her mouth, no doubt to respond with another one of her apparently stinging remarks, but she was interrupted by one of the sophomores elbowing her fiercely.

"Tilly! Your boyfriend is watching!" She hissed, motioning over to a tall and handsome blonde boy who was walking down the corridor, in the general direction of the group of girls.

Ally recognised him from her music class – his name was Austin, and the few times that they had chatted and worked together in class, she had found him quite sweet and endearing, but they never interacted outside of class except for the occasional 'hey, how are you?' when they saw one another. They had been in a group project together once, with three other people, and the group of five had had to make a presentation on music from the 1950s. They were the sort of friends who acknowledged one another's existence, and had exchanged mobile numbers and social media details long ago, but never really interacted outside of class. He was friendly, that was for sure, but Ally was shy and had never stepped out of her comfort zone and made the effort to be more than an 'acquaintance' to him, and vice versa.

As Austin approached, Tilly stepped away from Ally guiltily, and then turned to face him, a wide smile plastered across her features. "Austy!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest. He looked vaguely surprised before awkwardly patting her on the back, clearly uncomfortable.

"Um. Hey, Tilly," he mumbled back, looking at Ally with a scared expression. She couldn't help but feel amused, at his obvious dislike for his 'girlfriend'. ' _Help me_ ,' he mouthed to Ally, the frightened expression growing as Tilly refused to move away from him.

"Hey, Austin," Ally smiled, waving at him. "Tilly, here, was just giving me a friendly tip on how my shoes are ugly _and_ impractical." She turned her sunny smile on Tilly, who was turning a deep shade of red, clearly embarrassed to have Austin find out how awful she had been to Ally just moments ago.

He looked confused, his handsome features scrunched up as he regarded Tilly. Luckily for him, Tilly was too busy fuming and glaring at Ally to notice Austin extracting himself from her grip. He mouthed a _thank you_ at Ally, and she grinned in response.

"Anyway, as charming as this has been, Trish and Kira are waiting for me. Talk to you later, Til!" Ally exclaimed cheerily, before humming softly moving away from the crowd of sophomore minions and the very red and angry Tilly. As she passed Austin, she gave him a stern glance. "Saved _your_ sorry ass," she muttered to him, and he smiled gratefully at her. She smiled back, and rolled her eyes before merrily making her way down to the cafeteria.

It was hard for Ally to 'hate' Tilly. She didn't think it was fair to hate anybody, especially somebody who she felt sorry for. She knew why the blonde girl disliked her so much, and in all honestly, even though Ally thought it was kind of dumb – she understood. It had been almost thirteen years ago, now, but she figured that Tilly was used to always getting her way no matter what. When Ally had been the reason that Tilly hadn't gotten her way, she supposed it had infuriated the blonde to the point of a meaningless and petty grudge for several years.

The moment Tilly Thompson had first started hating Ally was during kindergarten. Their teacher had given them all an assignment to write a little 'song' about bugs, and the student with the best song would be allowed to perform it at the next assembly. Of course, since they were only children, the teacher wasn't expecting anything substantial or all that good, but she thought it would be cute and a fun way to stimulate their creative minds at a young age. Ally had been creative right from the moment she had been expelled from her mother's uterus, and had always had a natural gift for making music. As soon as little five-year-old Ally had gotten home, she had written an adorable little song about butterflies. She still remembered it to this day. Tilly, on the other hand, had written a song about ladybugs which had no musical cohesion or even a proper rhythm. When the teacher had chosen Ally's song over Tilly's, on account of it being a real song and quite the impressive number for someone so young, Tilly had vowed to take vengeance on Ally one day.

So, Ally didn't hate Tilly. She pitied her.

When Ally finally reached Trish and Kira, at their usual lunchtime table, with the silver tray of food in her hands, her friends looked up.

"About time, Beauty Queen," Trish teased, nudging her friend. "What the hell took you so long?"

Ally groaned and speared a piece of what appeared to be _asparagus_ with her fork, and inspected it as she spoke. "I had a little _welcoming committee_ in front of my locker today," she stated, the annoyance clearly laced in the quiet girl's tone. Despite the fact that she seemed shy, quiet, and always cheerful to people who didn't know her very well, the two girls at the table knew her well enough to know that she was fiery and sassy, and had more emotions than just 'happy' and 'really happy'.

"Tilly _again_?" Kira asked, quirking an eyebrow. She was wearing a large sweatshirt over a bright yellow skirt, accompanied by sneakers and her hair in a tight ponytail. Ally knew that that meant she was wearing her cheerleading uniform, since she had practice after school, but Kira didn't enjoy parading around the school in it because her identity consisted of more than being a cheerleader.

"Mhm," Ally said, taking a chance and taking a bite of the weird asparagus thing. It tasted like the stem of broccoli. "I just don't think she understands that this isn't _Glee_. She can't just strut around in her uniform and expect everybody to fall to her feet. That's not how real life works."

Both of her friends chuckled, smiling as they continued to eat. They knew that sometimes Ally just needed to vent a little bit, on account of always being the 'nice' girl who didn't talk behind people's backs because it was rude and unnecessary. They were more than happy to let her let out some of her pent up annoyance about the rude blonde.

"She's been extra annoying recently," Kira announced, twirling a French fry between her fingers. "I think she's trying to kick me off the squad. It's like she thinks we're not co-captains or something, and that she's the only captain. It's really weird. She keeps scheduling unnecessary rehearsals and yelling at people who miss it."

"She's a wackadoodle," Trish sang, reaching over and stealing some of Ally's chips. "I've told you guys this countless times."

Kira rolled her eyes, and Ally hid her smile by focusing on her food.

"Last week, she made Brooke _cry_ ," Kira added, her eyes wide and her voice low so that nobody would listen in on the three friends. Not that they would, considering everybody surrounding them were speaking to their own clique of friends.

"It wouldn't be that hard," Trish stated matter-of-factly. "Everybody knows that Brooke is always on the verge of tears, especially ever since Dallas refused to let her take a lock of his hair."

"Trish!" Ally exclaimed, swatting her friend. "That's so rude!"

The Latina simply shrugged with a smirk on her face, as the three friends ate in amicable silence. At one point, Trish snorted, and nudged both girls, nodding her head in the direction of her amusement.

"Looks like Tilly is wearing out her boy-toy," Trish giggled, and Kira and Ally both reacted in the same way – they clamped a hand over their mouth and looked scandalised, but little giggles somehow managed to worm their way out of them.

Across the cafeteria, it seemed that Trish's words rang true. Austin looked annoyed as Tilly reached up and ruffled those soft blonde locks of his, and he pointedly ran a hand through them again, clearly attempting to style it in the way he preferred. Everything she did seemed to tick him off, which was unusual, since Ally had always seen him as a pretty laidback kind of guy. Although, she reflected thoughtfully that she didn't know him very well, and perhaps under the layer of being an easy-going person, he was actually horrible and impatient. Somehow, that didn't seem quite right, and Ally also reflected that Tilly was just an annoying person.

"It's kind of disgusting how she just, like, _clings_ to him," Kira said, wrinkling her nose. "I mean, look how scared that poor boy looks. He's probably too scared to break up with her. I bet she's forcing him to be with her, for aesthetics or popularity or something."

Ally giggled, and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Yeah, they're not a good couple. Unlike _you_ and _Elliot_ ," she said, singing Elliot's name and nudging Kira. "Your one-month anniversary is coming up, right? That's pretty big!"

Kira bit her lip and looked embarrassed, but her eyes were shining. "Yeah. He's taking me to the arcade, but he says he's also got a really big surprise."

"A really _big_ surprise, hm?" Trish commented, her voice dripping with suggestive intention. She waggled her eyebrows, and Kira made a gagging face.

"Trish!" She whined. "He's a _gentleman_. He's not going to – he's not going to _proposition_ me or anything. We haven't – we haven't even done anything more than – than –" she broke off, blushing intensely, and Trish looked intrigued.

"More than…?" She prompted. Ally made a face – she wasn't sure she wanted to hear this.

"We haven't done more than, like, kissing. With – like – y'know – like – t-tongue," she managed to get out eventually, her eyes sparkling with acute embarrassment.

" _Ew_ ," Ally said pointedly, poking her tongue out. "I just want to hear about the romantic part. Not the sexy part."

It was obvious that Kira was getting embarrassed, and she smiled shyly at her two friend's, nodding in agreement to Ally's words. Trish seemed disappointed, having obviously wanting all the juicy details. Since Elliot didn't go to their school, there was an air of mystery about Kira's new beau, and Ally and Trish had only met him two or three times in the whole month that Kira had been dating him, and they were both very intrigued to find out more about this guy that their friend liked so much. When Ally was younger, she had met him on an arts camp, but who he was when he was seven was quite different to who he was as a seventeen year old. It was nice to be reunited with him again, but he had far more in common with Kira than he had with Ally. Of course, Ally had always found him incredibly pleasant and the two got along quite well. Trish was just loud enough to amuse him, but Ally felt as though she grated on his nerves at times.

"Anyway," Kira said, having finished her food and toying with the lid on her water bottle. "Did you hear? They're announcing the parts for _Pippin_ tomorrow!"

Marino High School was a school well-known for encouraging creativity and sport, even if the academics were not as good as they could be. Each year, they held a musical, and this year they were putting on _Pippin_. Ally had been in the school orchestra since freshman year, and Trish had always joined the stage crew. Kira always tried out for a role, and Ally knew that this year was special to her – being her senior year, this would be her last musical ever, and she was aiming for the lead. Of course, she couldn't be Pippin, since she was a girl and Pippin was – well, a _boy_ , and whilst it wouldn't be hard for them to make Pippin a girl, the musical department saw no reason to change the part when there was a female lead who had just an important role. Kira had tried out for the leading player, and so had Tilly Thompson and several other girls. Their music teacher had transposed the score so that the leading player was more suited for a female part, because she had felt as though there should be a female and a male lead – and since Pippin was the male, that left the leading player to be female. In Ally's honest, and unbiased opinion, she agreed that Kira was the best choice for the role.

The three friends continued to chatter amongst themselves, thinking about each role and discussing who they thought would get it – they had narrowed the role of Pippin down to either Austin Moon, or Jace Wallace, and Trish and Ally firmly decided that Kira would definitely get the role of the leading player. As the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, Ally smiled and strode away from a still-protesting Kira, and happily made her to the music rooms – she always went ahead of Trish and Kira, since they preferred to go to their lockers at the end of lunch rather than the beginning.

Upon getting there, Ally noted that there were only a few of her classmates there. The strange part, though, was that Tilly was there – and it was strange, since Tilly didn't take Music. As far as Ally knew, Tilly had absolutely refused to do music ever since Ally had upstaged her in Kindergarten. Yet, there she sat, blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders and down her back as she laughed, her arms securely around Austin's neck as she sat, side-saddle, in his lap. Austin, however, looked mildly terrified at the pretty girl in his lap, and he awkwardly patted her back. Ally stifled a giggle as she watched Austin and his red-haired friend – Dez? Was that his name? – having some sort of silent conversation. To her, it looked to go something like this:

 _Dez. Bro. Help me. Bro._

 _Why would I help you, bro? I don't want that crazy ball of crazy turning on me. Bro._

 _But bro._

 _Don't 'bro' me, bro._

 _Bro._

Of course, she didn't really know what their silent conversation was about, but she assumed that it went something like that.

As she passed by them, carefully making sure she was separated from the couple by three rows of chairs and music stands, she gave Austin an amused look, and he made a face, turning his puppy dog eyes away from his friend and over to Ally as Tilly sighed and nestled in closer to him. With an unimpressed raise of her eyebrow, Ally stared right back at Austin, the silent conversation now between them.

 _What the hell am I supposed to do, Austin? Pull her hair and tell her to leave?_

 _Help me. Please._

She sighed, and ran a hand through her hair, because Allyson Dawson had always been one to please everybody, no matter how ridiculous the task. She had once built a bird house for somebody, with real power tools and everything, at the tender age of ten years old simply because her elderly neighbour thought cages were inhumane. With a glare at Austin, as though to say that he owed her one, Ally walked towards them and tapped Tilly on the shoulder, her rose-coloured fingernails digging into the contacted surface of her folder nervously.

"Um. Excuse me, Tilly? I didn't – I didn't know you took this class," Ally said, looking sheepish.

One, two, three seconds passed. Tilly looked up, her blonde hair swishing and flicking Austin's face as it did so, and she stood up, her cheerleading skirt swishing about her thighs as she did so. "I don't," Tilly responded icily, looking at Ally as though she were some sort of insignificant gnat.

"Don't you have home ec right now? You wouldn't want to be late," Ally fired back. Something about that _look_ Tilly had given her, as though she didn't think _Ally_ could win against _her_ , angered the small brunette, and she wasn't going to back down.

Tilly glared at Ally, before rolling her arms. "Bye, Austy," she said, leaning down to kiss the blond on the cheek, and then gave Ally one, final glare, before picking up her things and exiting the room. By now, a few more people had entered, but their music teacher was infamous for being late to class.

Austin gave Ally a very thankful look, and she smiled with a roll of her eyes.

"That's the second time today that I saved your sorry ass," she told him quietly, a smile dancing on her lips. "You owe me. Big time." With that, she turned and moved to the front of the class to take her regular seat, hearing Austin chuckle behind her.

 **A/N: So, there we go! Does this sound interesting? Are you InTrIgUeD? Read and review please, I love hearing feedback on how to improve or what you liked best. Thanks! ~Fishelle out, bitches.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally (clearly, otherwise all of this would be canon?) and I'm in no way affiliated with Disney.**

 **Word Count: 4 482**

 **A/N: Hi! It's me again! Just a little reminder that this chapter is going to be quite a bit shorter than my usual chapters since it** _ **is**_ **mainly introductory, but once our story really gets started, I promise longer chapters.**

 **Again, the first section (before the page break) is just introducing you to the characters, since this** _ **is**_ **an AU and their stories are slightly different from the regular show. After the page break, the actual story starts, though. After this, I promise it's just straight story. Yay. As previously said, if you want to skip the boring, introductory bits where I just quickly go over their backstory and personalities, just find the page break and start from there. They're not very OOC in this AU. Anyway, on with the story!**

* * *

Austin Moon was the sort of guy who would look at a person and see the good in them.

This was not to say that he was naïve. If a person was to give him a reason to mistrust them, or think badly of them, then he would usually continue to treat them nicely, but be cautious of who they were and what they were capable of. Luckily for him, Austin had rarely found himself in a situation where he had to doubt anybody for any reason, and the only person he could call to mind as being different to who he had thought they were was his ex-girlfriend, Tilly Thompson.

Tilly Thompson was something else. When he had first met her, he tried his very best not to find her annoying, but he never really enjoyed spending time with her. Eventually, she wore him down and he agreed to go on a date with her, in hopes that she would stop pestering him afterward. Even he had to admit that they did look quite cute together. He was on the basketball team, and she was on the cheerleading squad. She had told him that they were destined to be, and Austin while Austin very much believed in the concept of 'soulmates', he did not think she was his. At first, dating her hadn't been that bad, but she had gone from nice and tolerable to possessive and intimidating within a few weeks, and Austin had valiantly attempted to dump her multiple times for a whole year. Each time he broke up with her, she would act as though they hadn't _really_ broken up, since they were both aware that Austin was far too polite to make a scene in public and embarrass her by dumping her in front of everybody.

In any case, he was always willing to be the 'bigger' person, and was, by all definitions, a good boy. He did his homework (although, he did struggle with it quite a bit), he listened to his parents, and he even helped elderly women cross the street. He was popular and good at sports, although his real passion lay in music. He hoped to become an overnight pop sensation one day, but his father constantly mentioned getting him into a business degree at college so that he could take over the family store. Austin, himself, wanted to get a scholarship to the university of his dreams – MUNY. His parents were the owners of Moon's Mattress Kingdom, and he worked part-time for a bit of extra money.

Mike and Mimi Moon had also employed Dez Wade, Austin's best friend since Kindergarten, and Jace Wallace, a friend off of the basketball team who really clicked with Austin in the ninth grade, to work at the store part-time. They had been more than happy to set the young boys to work on moving heavy boxes and running errands that their older employees found tedious. The three boys were 'The Dream Team' and had stuck together through various ups and downs, and working at the mattress store together only further deepened that bond.

Dez Wade was the sort of guy who could always find a bright side to everything, and had almost unrealistic expectations of _the real world_. He wore funky clothes and his red hair was almost as bright as the sunny smile he always had, but it was Dez's personality that really made him stand out. He was quirky and funny, and far more intelligent than he let on, and he had a way with filming and editing that definitely made people think that one day he could be in the film industry. He didn't like pushing people into things, but he often encouraged others to take strange and unusual leaps of faith at the weirdest of times.

Jace Wallace was the sort of guy who could go bungee jumping into a ravine filled with crocodiles, and he would still barely bat an eye. He seemed positively generic to most people, but his closest friends knew that he was an adrenalin junkie with a passion for skydiving and an addiction to rollercoasters. He had dark brown hair and a lopsided smile that made girls quite literally _swoon_ , but he had never had a girlfriend for more than a few months, since they all had quickly grown sick of spontaneous adventures and unannounced visits. Jace was into sports, being on almost every sport team available to him at the school, as well as sports teams outside of school and was almost guaranteed a sporting scholarship into the University of Miami.

The Dream Team always sat together at lunch, and sometimes others joined them – namely cheerleaders or others on various sports teams, and sometimes even a few of Dez's friends from the film club would. They didn't mind, since they were all quite happy and pleased to socialise. Sometimes, Austin would excuse himself and join his friends from band, but he would usually sit with Jace and Dez. They were good people, and he loved their company.

Austin just loved people, and loved being kind to others.

* * *

Thursday was always Pizza Day.

It had become a tradition of sorts, between the three friends, to always take a breather and have pizza together on a Thursday. Usually, Austin, Dez, and Jace, would go to Austin's house after school, do their homework and have some chill time, and then go to the mall and get pizza for dinner. Sometimes, they would be lazy and have it delivered to Austin's house. It wasn't always at Austin's house – sometimes, they would go to Dez or Jace's place – but since Austin lived the closest to the school, and to the mall, it seemed like the best choice to be their usual 'hang out' place.

Today was one of those lazy days where the boys had ordered three pizzas – three, because they had long ago discovered that having leftovers was far better than not having enough – and they were far too busy playing the Wii and enjoying the cheesy goodness to hold up any sort of real conversation. Not that they minded, of course – they had been friends long enough that they didn't feel the constant need to validate their friendship with constant conversation about nothing in particular. Similarly, be _cause_ they were so close, they could have constant conversation about nothing in particular and still be completely comfortable with one another.

They had long ago allocated Thursday as Pizza Day, when their high school schedules began to clash and they found themselves spending less and less time with one another. Dez had been the one to suggest it, since he was the most sentimental out of the three, and it had stuck since then. Since Jace had practice for some sort of team after school almost every day, and Fridays were always far too crowded to enjoy time at the mall, Thursday had seemed like the best option. It was towards the end of the week, Jace was actually free, and Austin's parents were normally both working until 8pm – meaning that the three boys had the whole house to themselves.

After finishing the majority of the pizza, they lounged about in Austin's bedroom, none of them quite ready to start heading home just yet.

"So," Dez said, looking bored as he flipped through a random book he had pulled off of Austin's shelf. Since Austin himself was not an avid reader, his bookshelf was filled with sheet music, and this one was a book filled with music from some obscure musical that none of them had ever heard of, but it had been a gift from a family friend and he had never had the heart to throw it out, even if he had never opened it. "First of all – what the heck is this?"

Austin shrugged. "Sheet music."

"Hey, isn't the cast list for the musical going up tomorrow?" Jace asked, looking away from the TV screen, and reaching over to grab one of the last slices of pizza.

"Yeah!" Dez exclaimed, nodding enthusiastically. "This year, Ms Suzy wants to have the musical filmed and put together so that we can give DVDs out and maybe sell a few copies. It's probably the biggest project Film Club has ever gotten."

"Sweet," Jace replied. "That's awesome, bro. Make sure you get my good side when you're filming, eh?"

Austin rolled his eyes. "I think he means, make sure you get _my_ good side when you're filming, since _I'll_ get the lead," he responded confidently.

"Maybe the understudy. Don't flatter yourself," Jace joked, grinning at his friend. In all honesty, the three boys were well aware that Austin was most likely to get the lead – he normally got the lead in the school musical, and Jace wasn't really all that intent on getting the lead. He had auditioned because it seemed fun, not because he thought he would get the role.

Dez chuckled, amused with the simple banter between his friends. "Hah, wouldn't it be funny if you got the lead and Tilly did, too?"

Austin glared at Dez. "That would _not_ be funny," he whined. "It would be _horrible_. She won't leave me alone! She would ruin my last high school musical experience," he said. As soon as he said _high school musical_ , Dez began to hum music from it, and Austin rolled his eyes before shoving a pillow at him.

"Just break up with her," Jace said, casually, although he knew very well that Austin had tried several times.

"I've already tried!" Austin groaned, flopping backwards dramatically and sprawling across the floor. "She just shows up to school and acts like nothing happened. I didn't even like her in the first place – we agreed that I would go on a date, and if it went well then we could go on another, but if it didn't, she would leave me alone. She broke her promise! And she knows that I'm too chicken to embarrass her in public like that. She's a _girl_ , what if she like, _cries_ or something? Then I seem like an awful person," he said, pouting like a petulant child.

"Stop whining," Dez said, rolling his eyes. "Let the _Love Whisperer_ tell you what to do."

"Nobody calls you that," Austin whispered mockingly.

At the same time, Jace asked, "but shouldn't the _Love Whisperer_ be an advocate for fixing relationships? Not breaking them up?"

Dez tutted. "So naïve. So, so naïve. You see, dear grasshopper, the _Love Whisperer_ is the one who can bring happiness. Joy. If a relationship isn't working, the _Love Whisperer_ must help them let go and move on."

Somehow, it made sense, and Austin sighed. He relented, waving his hand and indicating that Dez chirp out whatever nonsensical advice it was that he wanted to chirp out.

"Break up with her in public. Duh."

Austin groaned. "But that's the thing! I feel so bad doing it."

"Tough luck. You know that if you don't do it soon she's going to somehow trick you into marrying her. C'mon, tomorrow at school, do it in front of enough people and early in the morning so that not everybody sees it, but word will spread around the school fast enough that she can't pretend nothing happened."

It was a surprisingly clever plan from their friend, although Austin had never doubted that Dez was quite wise, even if he chose to put up a dimwitted façade the majority of the time. Even Jace seemed to agree with Dez, nodding thoughtfully and humming his approval.

Austin sighed. He knew that he would have to take Dez's advice – after all, he couldn't remain scared of Tilly forever, nor could he keep being the nice guy who didn't want to embarrass her in front of everybody. It was time for him to make it clear to everybody the he was _not_ dating Tilly Thompson.

* * *

The corridors in the school were surprisingly cold in the morning, and Austin grumbled to himself as he pulled a hoodie out of his bag and shrugged it on. Winter in Miami wasn't that bad, but it wasn't necessarily good, either. When he reached his locker, he sighed as he knelt on the floor to open it. The way the lockers were arranged really were quite unusual, with a row on the bottom, with the top of it only waist-high on Austin, and another row on top that was about his height – a bit taller than him. He didn't understand why he had a locker on the floor, when he had seen so many short people struggle with reaching the top of their lockers. He had never thought to ask to change his locker, but now that graduation was only four months away, he didn't see much point in getting it changed.

When he stood up, shoving his chemistry textbook into his backpack before slinging it back around to his back and dusting off his jeans, a cold pair of hands suddenly covered his eyes.

"Guess who!" Exclaimed an overly-cheery voice, and Austin wanted to groan.

"Hi, Tilly," he sighed, gently removing her hands and turning around to face her. "I've already asked you not to do that anymore," he said to her, his tone clipped. "Yet you still do it."

The blonde rolled her eyes, cocking a hip out and folding her arms. "You act as though it physically pains you to be with me."

"It doesn't _physically_ pain me," he muttered under his breath, and she raised an eyebrow. "It just _pains_ me."

"What was that?"

"Sorry, that was rude," Austin apologised. He hadn't meant for that comment to slip out, really; he could never bring it in himself to be voluntarily rude to anybody, even if they _were_ annoying him.

"If you have something to say, then just say it," Tilly snapped.

There was an awkward silence, and Austin played with the strap on his backpack. There were a few more people filtering in and out through the hallway, now, and he could see Dez walking along. The red-head gave him a thumbs up before turning to open his locker.

 _Well_ , Austin thought. _I may as well do it now._

"I want you to stop pretending we're still a couple when we're not," Austin said loudly. He didn't shout it, nor did he say it loud enough to cause a scene, but his tone was firm and confident and he was loud enough that anybody passing by would be able to hear him. "You know that we aren't, and it makes me very uncomfortable that you continue to act like we are."

A few people that were passing by looked amused, and he even heard a laugh or two, but nobody stopped to watch them, clearly realising that eavesdropping was quite rude and that watching two people in a school hallway as though they were a television show was kind of creepy. A few moments passed, with Tilly looking annoyed and Austin looking confident. However, with each passing moment, his confident smile tapered more and more until it was really more of an awkward grin than anything.

"You're kidding me, right?" Tilly deadpanned. "You can't honestly say you were _serious_ all those times, right?"

That comment just pissed Austin off. He took a breath, knowing he shouldn't get mad, since she had clearly just misunderstood – but hadn't he made himself perfectly clear? If a person tells somebody else that they no longer want to be together, shouldn't the other accept it? Wasn't that the respectful thing to do? Austin had made it clear that he did not appreciate the things Tilly said and did. He had made it clear that he was revoking her right to refer to him as her boyfriend, despite the fact that he had once given her permission to do so. It was wrong of her to keep pretending, simply because she thought it was implicit that since they were _once_ a couple, that apparently meant that they were _still_ a couple.

"I'm not kidding. I've never been kidding. You know that. I know that. What will it take to nail it into your head that _I am not your boyfriend_?" Austin asked sharply, looking rather annoyed, despite his promise to himself not to get mad. She just seemed to know how to push his buttons. He could see groups of friends who were gathered around lockers craning and turning their heads to stare curiously at him, before they shrugged and continued with their conversations. Obviously, the school's 'power couple' breaking up was not as big a deal as everybody had thought.

Her nostrils flared and her fists clenched at her sides, and for a moment, Austin genuinely feared for his life. "Austin Moon, you are _not_ breaking up with me _three months_ before my senior prom."

"That's true," Austin mused, his voice still loud, tapping his chin. "I'm not breaking up with you _three months_ before your senior prom. I broke up with you a year ago. And I have broken up with you every week since then. So really, I broke up with you a _year_ and three months before your senior prom."

A tiny giggle caught Austin's attention, and just behind Tilly, he could see Ally walking past, hugging a folder to her chest, eyes on the floor and face half hidden by the folder, as though she were trying not to laugh. It pleased him to think that he had amused _Ally Dawson_ , the freakishly talented girl from his music class. It worried him how cute he thought she was, with her eyes bright and her nose sticking out just along the top of her folder as she tried to conceal her smile. Before he could fixate _too_ much on how cute he thought she was, she had walked past completely, and his attention was once more on the angry blonde in front of him.

"Fuck you," Tilly said to Austin. "Don't you have _any_ clue? If you want to be Prom King, you have to date the Prom _Queen_."

There was an awkward silence, in which Austin awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and stared at her very, _very_ awkwardly. "Um… So you want me to date Kira Starr?" He asked, rather confused.

Tilly glared at him.

Austin cleared his throat. "Right. Uh… so, if your big thing is that you need a date for the prom, why don't you just ask someone else?"

"Because nobody _else_ is the captain of the basketball team," she said, looking _extremely_ annoyed now, with her lips pursed and her hands on her hips. Austin almost suggested she ask Jace, since he was on almost every other sports team and played very important roles in all of those, before an even better idea formed in his head.

"Wouldn't you rather date the _star quarterback_?" Austin suggested, waggling his eyebrows. In all honesty, he had no idea _who_ the star quarterback at school was, but he knew it wasn't Jace and he knew that if he got Tilly obsessed with somebody else, she would let go of him and be somebody else's problem. He just hoped that the quarterback wasn't a girl, since he knew that Tilly didn't swing that way. "I mean, think about it… The co-captain of the cheerleading squ—"

" _Head_ captain," she interrupted.

"Right. The head captain of the cheerleading squad," he repeated, although he was confused. He had thought she and Kira were co-captains. "And the _star quarterback._ Isn't that a match made in Heaven?" _Please don't be a girl, please don't be a girl, please don't be a girl_ , Austin chanted in his head as he continued to rant about the quarterback. Tilly would _flip_ if he even _suggested_ that she was a _little_ bit bisexual.

Her lips were still pursed, and her fists clenched. "Are you _seriously_ telling me that I should ask out _Gavin Young_?" She spat, her eyes lighting up with rage. Austin mentally cheered at the fact that the quarterback wasn't a girl.

"Um. Maybe. Just a suggestion. Y'know. Best football guy. Best cheerleader gal. Isn't that what all the movies paint it out to be?"

" _Gavin Young_ is somebody else's _leftovers_. I will – _not_ – date Ally _Dawson's_ – _leftovers_. We're _through_ , Austin Moon." She glared at Austin once more, looking thoroughly annoyed (and secretly, Austin was feeling quite glad that she looked as though she hated him), before turning and flipping her hair over her shoulder, a hand on her hip as she stalked away, her cheerleading skirt fluttering around her legs as she attempted to look sexy and confident.

A huge sigh of relief fell from the boy's lips as he realised that he was finally – _finally_ – free from the ' _relationship'_ he had been trapped in since the previous year. Dez walked over and gave him a high five, congratulating him. It was nice to finally have that off of his shoulders, and judging from the way people were whispering amongst themselves and glancing at him occasionally, despite the fact that they had appeared disinterested only moments ago, he had a feeling that Dez's idea had actually worked. While he did find it unusual that his wayward friend had actually had an intelligent idea, he wasn't complaining. In fact, he was so elated that he punched his fist into the air and let out an excited ' _whoop_ ', scaring several freshmen as he did so. He smiled apologetically at them, before awkwardly turning and jogging off to class with Dez as the warning bell rang.

The final bell rang just as Austin and Dez sat down in their chairs, dropping their bags onto the floor and looking expectantly up at the music teacher. Technically – _technically_ – they weren't late to class. Ms Suzy looked rather exasperated, before she smiled at the pair and shook her head, beginning the lesson. She had gotten used to their antics long ago, and since Austin and Dez managed to maintain good grades in music – which seemed to be the _only_ class they maintained good grades in – she had never had a reason to tell either of them off, except when they spoke a little too loudly during her lesson.

It was a music theory lesson, as opposed to a practice lesson where they got play the instruments and write songs. Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons were always the lessons where they got to play the instruments. Needless to say, they were Austin's favourite days. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy music theory – it fascinated him to learn how music _worked_ , to learn about different chords and how harmonics worked and even what Sibelius' music was in the style of. Music had always been Austin's favourite lesson, and it was one of the only classes he excelled in because he really _enjoyed_ it. He knew that Dez was a secret whiz at maths, and was _amazing_ at food tech, but Austin was more of a music and history kind of kid. Jace didn't share this class with them, because he didn't enjoy music in the same way that Austin and Dez did.

Towards the end of the lesson, Ms Suzy began to tell them which chapters of the textbook were for homework and whatnot. As the bell rung, she announced, "The cast list for _Pippin_ go up today! The list will be up outside the theatre, so make sure to check that later. The list of people in the orchestra for the production will also be up, please make sure your name is on it if you signed up. If there are any problems, come see me," she said, but her words were somewhat lost by students leaving the classroom and excitedly whispering amongst themselves who they thought would get the lead. Austin was excited – at lunch time, he would check the board to see if he got the lead.

* * *

When lunch began, Austin practically bolted out of his maths class, bumping into several people as he did so. Most people seemed to be heading to the cafeteria, but when Austin finally made his way to the theatre, through the throng of students, he found himself facing a large crowd. It seemed quite a lot of people had auditioned for the musical. He scanned the crowd to see if he could spot his tall, red headed friend, since he knew that Dez's last class had been closer to the theatre than his. When Austin saw Dez pumping a fist up in the air enthusiastically, he knew immediately that he had gotten the role. Of course, it could have been Jace that Dez was so enthusiastic about, or even Kira – she was one of the nicer cheerleaders, and had always been kind to Dez – but when Austin met Dez's eye, and the boy smirked, he knew that the excited cheer had been for him. Nonetheless, Austin wanted to see the sheet for himself. He pushed his way through the crowd, and then breathed a huge sigh of relief.

 _PIPPIN….. Austin Moon_

Austin turned and high-fived Dez. He still had to check that Tilly hadn't gotten any major roles, because he didn't want to spend a lot of time with her. Once he found who had gotten the female lead, he felt even better.

 _LEADING PLAYER….. Kira Starr_

It was all coming together. He looked forward to working with Kira – she was nice, talented, and very friendly, and the two got along quite well. He heard a loud, angry screech, followed by an even louder and even angrier stamp, and turned to see Tilly Thompson chucking a temper tantrum. She was complaining to her friends that it should have been _her_ who had gotten the lead female role, not _Kira_. Behind her, Kira Starr stood with none other than Ally Dawson, and Trish – de la Rosa? Was that her name? Austin had never really spoken to her before, he only knew her from the obligatory yearbook photos and the times Kira and Ally had mentioned her during their conversations – and all three girls looked thoroughly amused as the blonde cheerleader made a big deal and threw a hissy fit.

He met Kira's eye and motioned to Tilly with a tilt of his head, rolling his eyes. Kira winked, and whispered something to Ally, who stifled a giggle behind her hand, while Trish chuckled openly. When Austin met Ally's eye, his smile grew involuntarily to a charming, lopsided grin, which she returned with her eyes sparkling, her pale cheeks rosy as she, too, motioned to Tilly with a roll of her eyes, as though to say _'aren't you glad you jumped off of that train wreck?_ ' Austin chuckled and simply smirked at her, feeling exceedingly smug that he had been able to make her smile like that, before turning to Dez.

"Let's go get lunch now, eh?"

 **A/N: I realised like halfway through that I was actually bashing a lot of common tropes. Sorry. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading those cheesy, trashy tropes and I am guilty of having written and used a lot of them, but yeah, it's kinda fun to point out the ridiculousness of common fic tropes ahahaha I'm going to do that a lot soz**

 **Also, I** _ **am**_ **aware that Austin's reaction to breaking up with Tilly was quite overly dramatic and that she seems unnecessarily rude and bitchy, but her being a bitch** _ **is**_ **canon in the show, and is sorta integral to this plot. Not to mention that this** _ **is**_ **from Austin's POV so it's bound to be a tad over-exaggerated. You'll notice that in chapters from Ally's POV, Tilly seems kind of like a pathetic loser with no friends, whereas from Austin's POV, she'll seem like a crazy lady who's obsessed with him. Ally's perception of her is probably more believable lol okay well ty for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! As always, please read and review :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally (clearly, otherwise all of this would be canon?) and I'm in no way affiliated with Disney.**

 **Word Count: 5 568**

 **A/N: Hi! It's me again! So now, our real story is getting started and these chapters are going to be considerably longer from here on out. Maybe. Idk hopefully.**

 **Also, just for the record, I** _ **am**_ **Australian so our school system is considerably different to the one in America and I'm not really sure when their holidays and stuff are, or how their school day is split into periods and lunch and whatnot so I'm really just guessing from stereotypes and TV shows. According to Yahoo answers, school in America generally finishes in late May/Early June? And senior prom is often in May? So I guess that makes it February right now. I'll try to keep you guys updated on the month or how much longer they have until graduation. If anyone can tell me when seniors sit the SATs or their final exams – that would be very much appreciated.**

 **Anyway, soz for rambling, on with the story or whatever unless you've already skipped this lol.**

* * *

Empty packets of potato chips, cans of soft drink, and boxes of chocolate scattered the floor of Kira's bedroom, and three girls sat in various places around the room, all in their pyjamas and all with a content smile on their face.

"But did you see her _face_?" Trish guffawed, clutching a pillow to her chest as she attempted to stifle her laughter, sprawled across the bed. Kira's parents were asleep, so the girls were trying their best to keep it down.

Ally was clutching a mug of hot chocolate, sitting on the floor, her shoulders shaking as she was filled with a bout of silent laughter, and Kira was draped over the couch on the other side of the bedroom, her face buried into the armrest to stop her laughter. It was no secret that Kira came from a wealthy family, which was often why the three would have a sleepover at her house, as opposed to Ally's or Trish's who lived considerably closer to the school. Kira had a television in her room, and a large, walk-in closet that Trish often joked was the size of Ally's room. (It really wasn't, though. Ally's room was much larger than the closet.)

"She looked like an angry squirrel!" Kira squawked, her cheeks flushed when she looked up to grin at her friends.

"She looked like one of those naked mole rats," Ally commented, her cheeks aching from smiling and laughing so much. "Especially with her hair tied up so tightly, she looked so bald. And that vein on her forehead was just _throbbing_. She looks much prettier with her hair out," she added, thoughtfully.

Apparently, Ally's comment was enough to make Trish break into another bout of laughter, while Kira simply snorted loudly and buried her face back into the couch cushion. Needless to say, the three girls weren't going to sleep any time soon.

They had organised the sleepover a few weeks ago, deciding that it would either be a celebration of Kira getting the role, or a comfort session if she didn't get it. But, since Kira had gotten the role she wanted, and Ally had been told by the orchestra conductor that she had all of the violin solos, _and_ Trish had been told that she was the senior stage crew member (since the teacher was the stage crew _manager_ , he had always seen it fit to appoint one senior as the second-in-charge), all three found it fit to celebrate. Kira's father had picked them up from school and took them to the cheesecake shop after school, and ever since then, the three girls had been binge eating in celebration until they could no longer eat.

After a few more moments of silent laughter, Kira finally managed to get some words out. "Today she tried to trip me over," she said, breathing heavily and trying not to laugh again. "It was so petty! Like, what? If she trips me over I'm somehow not going to want to do the musical anymore?"

Trish rolled her eyes, although she didn't do anything to stop herself from laughing. Ally was attempting to finish her hot chocolate without spilling it everywhere, but it was proving quite difficult with all the giggling she was doing.

"Geez, she's really going to try and screw you over, isn't she?" Trish asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, trying to calm her flushed cheeks.

"Mhm," Kira responded. "I'll bet she even takes to cyber bullying, or some shit like that. She's going to try and make my life miserable. God, she's so dumb."

Even Ally had to agree, although she did feel bad for being mean about Tilly. But Tilly had been rude to Kira, and judging from the words she had heard Austin say earlier, she was also a sexual predator. Honestly, that poor boy had been trying to end things with her for a _year_ – if what he had said was true – and she still continued to act as though he hadn't been. And then she had the _audacity_ to say 'we're through'? Ally hadn't actually heard that bit, but she had heard through the grapevine that after being dumped by Austin publicly, Tilly had attempted to dump him. Even though she had already been dumped… Still, Ally had found the snippets of the conversation she had heard quite amusing.

It had really been quite an eventful day. After school, Ally had been glad to escape the gossip surrounding the school's 'power couple', and she had been more than happy to stuff her face with cheesecake. Elliot had even joined them, congratulating his girlfriend and being so _cute_ that Ally found herself smiling and watching the couple to the point where they had gotten creeped out. She hadn't meant to creep them out, or anything – but – well – well, she just loved romance! She loved love, there was no doubt about that. She had only had one boyfriend before, and he had lived up to her every expectation of what a relationship should be. It was going well until they had both realised that they were much more compatible as friends, but Ally still had her heart wide open for romance and was not yet cynical about it. Many people often thought she was, due to cryptic things she would often mention in regards to her parents' divorce, but at heart, Ally just loved romance and everything it entailed. Which brought her to her next question…

"So, Elliot, huh?"

Kira looked embarrassed, and nodded shyly. "He's so great," she gushed, and the three girls grinned.

"Does he kiss you in the rain?" Ally asked, holding a hand to her heart.

"Does he take you on moonlit picnics?" Trish asked, shuffling over to sit near Kira and inspect her during their barrage of questions.

"Does he buy you flowers?"

"Does he pay for dinner?"

"Does he tell you that you look beautiful?"

"Has he noticed that your skin is _flawless_?"

"Does he _always_ smell that good?"

"Are you in love with him?"

"Do you think you're going to _marry_ him?"

"Is he going to take you to Athens for your honeymoon?"

"Who's gonna be the maid of honour? Me or Trish?"

"Do you think he has a big –"

" _Trish_."

Kira's eyes flitted between her two friends as they continued to bombard her with questions, and the dark-haired girl struggled to keep up, trying to answer all of the questions that Ally and Trish had about her boyfriend. He had been fun to hang out with that afternoon, but Ally always enjoyed time with Elliot. He was like the best guy friend she had always wanted – something akin to a brother, although it felt weird thinking that since she had once had a crush on him. It seemed as though Kira and Elliot were in a very happy relationship, though, and Ally couldn't be happier for her friend.

"Speaking of cute _boys_ ," Trish drawled, turning to look at Ally. "I think _Austin_ has a crush on you."

Ally looked immensely embarrassed, and shook her head. "It's not like that! We're, like, I don't know… Acquaintances? We barely talk outside of music class," she protested. "Like, I think the only interaction we ever have outside of class is maybe, like, when he comes into the store to buy instruments and stuff."

"Puh-lease," Kira scoffed, apparently siding with Trish. "Didn't you see that little smirk-y smirk thing he shot you earlier? Totally flirting."

"Oh, shush," Ally said, rolling her eyes. "That's just his face. He likes to smile a lot. He's a very smile-y person!"

"Of course you would know that," Trish teased. "Considering you're all flirty with him. Is there something you're not telling us?"

" _Nooo_!" Ally whined, pouting at her friends. "I barely know him. He's friendly, that's all. Besides, he could have been smiling at you."

Trish and Kira exchanged a look, and laughed to themselves, seemingly having decided that Ally was obviously hiding something – when she really, _really_ wasn't. Austin was a nice guy, and that was the end of the story. She really didn't know him well enough to have anything more than a vague attraction – but, well, who _wouldn't_ feel drawn to those smiling eyes and blonde hair that seemed to flop _just_ the right way? There was no doubt in Ally's mind that Austin Moon was a _very_ attractive young boy, and if they knew each other better, she could definitely see herself falling very rapidly and very hard for him – but as it was, they were acquaintances, and she didn't really mind. She didn't want to get attached to anybody now, anyway, because hopefully she would be moving to New York within the next few months to the college of her dreams.

"What _ever_ ," Ally added. "That's nothing compared to _you_ and _Jace_ ," she declared, pointing an accusatory finger in Trish's direction. "Why were you texting him _all_ through English?" She asked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Of course, this subject change meant that _Austin and Ally_ were no longer the topic of interest – rather, _Trish and Jace_ were, and Ally definitely felt as though there was more to tease there. Trish spluttered unintelligibly, before shrugging, attempting to play it off cool.

"You're just jealous that I was texting him instead of paying attention to you," Trish scoffed, and Ally smirked, rolling her eyes.

"As if."

The three girls continued to chat and tease one another throughout the night, until they fell asleep, one by one. Ally was the last to drift off to sleep, yet somehow, she was always the first to wake up in the morning.

* * *

"Ew, what the hell is that?"

Monday morning brought slightly warmer weather, heavy eyelids and tired stomps, and a few caffeine-high seniors who were trying to finish their homework before it was due later that day. Unfortunately for Kira Starr, it also brought an unidentified liquid splattered all over the inside of her locker. Ally's mouth was opening and closing, staring incomprehensibly at the pink, sticky substance inside of Kira's locker.

"I think it's guava juice," Kira said, leaning forward and sniffing it. "It's all over my textbooks!" She complained. "What the hell? I don't even drink guava juice! It's nasty shit," she added, her nose wrinkling up with distaste.

Ally simply stared at the locker, utterly perplexed. Clearly, somebody had squirted whatever the substance was through the flat, wide slats on the front of Kira's locker, in an attempt to destroy her notes or anything she might have had in there. Or, perhaps, somebody had tripped and their drink had hit her locker, somehow getting in. If that had been the case, then there would be much less mess. No, Ally knew that somebody must have done it on purpose.

As though to prove her point, Tilly walked past, nonchalantly sipping a bottle of guava juice and smirking.

"What's wrong, Ki-ki?" Tilly asked, specifically using the nickname that Kira _despised_. She looked inside the locker, and then pulled back, a fake look of disgust plastered over her face. "You really need to clean your locker more often, sweetie," she said, before turning and strolling away, looking rather smug.

" _Fuck_ ," Kira muttered, giving Tilly the finger once she had fully walked away. "I'm going to _kill_ her. Seriously, I had basically _all_ my textbooks in here! Look at this shit!" She exclaimed, gesturing to the sticky pile of books in her locker. "And I can't even frigging prove that it was her who did this shit!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down there," Ally soothed, resting a hand on Kira's shoulder and patting it. "She's probably just trying to intimidate you. I don't know, maybe she's trying to piss you off enough that you'll pull out of the musical and let her have the role. Maybe. _Maybe_."

Kira glared in the direction that Tilly had strutted away in, before sighing and running a hand through her hair. "Yeah, that's probably it," she grumbled. "So friggin' – whatever. I gotta get to class."

"Kira, wait," Ally started, but her friend was already walking away, a very annoyed expression on her face. She knew that Kira was annoyed, and that she would cool down after a little while, but if Tilly kept this up, Ally had a feeling that Kira just might snap.

As she followed the angry cheerleader down the hall, she passed by Tilly, who sneered and flipped her hair over her shoulder, looking incredibly pleased with herself. Kira immediately stopped, turned on her heel, and marched right back to face Tilly. Ally also paused in front of the blonde, cocking out a hip and folding her arms across her chest, looking annoyed as she stared up at Tilly. It was hard to be intimidating, since she was so short, but Ally thought she did a _damn_ fine good job at giving _The Look_ , as Trish had anointed it, with her eyebrow raised impossibly high, her lips pursed in an angry pout, her eyes narrowed and even her nostrils flaring.

"Well? Anything to say for yourself?" Kira prompted, when it became apparent that Tilly wasn't going to say anything.

"Your hair looks _amazing_ today," Tilly said, smiling kindly at her – but Ally could see straight through it. "It's a pity it doesn't look this good _every_ day," she sneered.

Once more, Ally looked unimpressed and continued to give her _The Look_ , waiting for her to give any sort of apology for what she had done to Kira.

"I want an apology," Kira stated, when it became clear that Tilly wasn't going to say anything more.

"For what?" Tilly asked, attempting to look innocent.

"Apologise to me," Kira stated firmly. Ally knew that her friend was not the sort of girl to back down. "And don't pull this kind of _crap_ again, okay? I'm going to have to pay for all the damage you caused to those _school issued_ textbooks. Not to mention that I'm gonna have to clean out my locker, _and_ explain to Dad _and_ the principal why I need new textbooks," she added.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tilly responded, nonchalantly shrugging.

"You know exactly what she's talking about!" Ally exclaimed in a rather annoyed tone, causing several students to stop and stare for a moment, surprised that shy little _Ally Dawson_ had a backbone.

Tilly was silent, before she shrugged and continued to look at Ally with an insolent expression. Ally opened her mouth once more, ready to fire off reasons why Tilly should be apologising profusely to Kira – and silently wishing that Trish was there, with her, to help back both her and Kira up – when a shadow fell across her and the smell of maple syrup and aftershave washed over her. With a confused expression, Ally looked up and was met with none other than Austin Moon's chest.

"What's going on here?" He asked, looking down at Ally and Kira, before glancing at Tilly. Clearly, he had thought it would be a good idea to get in the middle and stop any sort of 'cat fight', and whilst Ally appreciated the sentiment, she really did not think his help was needed. If anything, now she was too nervous to say anything rude to Tilly, because no matter how fiercely loyal Ally was to her friends, there was no denying that she was a shy girl who had trouble articulating proper sentences in front of people she didn't really know.

"She squirted juice in my locker," Kira explained calmly. "I've come to collect an apology."

Austin looked at Tilly, a rather unimpressed look on his face. "That's rude," he said. "You should apologise to Kira," he stated firmly. (Ally couldn't help but note that he was cute when he tried to be stern.)

"I don't want to," Tilly said defiantly. "Besides, you don't get to butt into my business anymore. You were the one who wanted to end things. Unless you're saying you want me back?"

The blond rolled his eyes, shaking his head and giving Ally a look, as though to say _'It physically pains me to be here. You owe me._ '

All of a sudden, Ally realised why he was helping them instead of just walking away. It was because she had jokingly told him that he owed her _big time_ for helping him when Tilly wouldn't leave him alone. She stifled a giggle, because now _really_ wasn't the time to be giggling at Austin's cute little antics, but she was incredibly amused and it was clear on her face that she was.

"Alright, whatever, I don't need an apology," Kira said, running a hand through her hair. She looked tired. "Just don't pull this shit again, okay? I'm not going to quit the musical, and if you don't stop soon I'm going to have to tell the principal what you're doing."

"You have no proof that I'm doing anything," Tilly sang, and Kira rolled her eyes. Without giving the dark-haired girl a chance to respond, Tilly strutted away once more. Kira turned on her heel and walked down the hall in the opposite direction, clearly annoyed, and Ally went to go follow her. Before she did, though, she turned around and smiled at Austin shyly.

"Sorry you had to see that," she said, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. "You know how cheerleaders are. Drama, drama, drama," Ally said, making some sort of lame gesture with her hands.

"It's okay," Austin responded easily. "Just don't do that weird hand thing again," he added, looking amused. It was almost as though he found it endearing – found _her_ endearing.

Ally saluted him, before mentally berating herself at how lame she was. "Aye-aye, Captain," she said awkwardly, and he just smiled and chuckled before shaking his head. She waved goodbye cheerfully, and scurried down the hall to find Kira, before the awkwardness could consume her, but in her mind she kept replaying that deep chuckle that _she_ had elicited from him, somehow wishing that she would be smelling maple syrup and aftershave all day.

* * *

It had been three weeks since Tilly had squirted juice on the inside of Kira's locker, and those three weeks had been filled with similar, immature pranks. Monday had brought guava juice. Tuesday had brought tripping Kira over 'by accident' in the hallway. Wednesday had brought knocking Kira's lunch tray out of her hands. _'By accident_ '. Thursday had brought mysterious holes in Kira's cheerleading uniform. Friday had brought mysterious _stains_ on Kira's cheerleading uniform. The next week followed a similar pattern, and so had the next week. Ally could tell that these immature pranks were beginning to take a toll on Kira, since the girl was considerably less cheery than usual.

Of course, Ally had convinced Kira to go the school guidance counsellor and tell her that Tilly Thompson was being a poor sport, but the counsellor hadn't been able to do more than call Tilly into her office and ask her questions on her side of the story – without any solid evidence that it was Tilly doing anything more than accidentally tripping Kira and accidentally knocking her food out of her hands, the counsellor was unable to punish her. She had very apologetically told Kira that it was out of her hands, and all she was legally allowed to do was to give Tilly a stern warning.

And so, the bullying had continued. With the support of Trish and Ally, and the majority of the cheerleading squad, Kira had managed to stay calm, but each day was another day closer to when she finally snapped at Tilly and demanded respect. It was obvious that it would happen soon. Ally wasn't sure when or where her friend would snap, but she knew that when it happened, it was likely that Tilly would twist it around so that Kira would be the one to get in trouble – and Ally had a feeling that that was _exactly_ what the blonde girl's plan was. She had been thinking about it and had come to the conclusion that Tilly was doing these nonsensical pranks to provoke Kira into reacting violently – thus, getting the dark-haired cheerleader into trouble and possibly kicked off the musical. And who would take the place of the female lead? Why, it would be the understudy, of course – who was none other than _Tilly Thompson_.

In all seriousness, Ally had to admit that it was quite a clever plan, even if she didn't believe that Tilly was capable of thinking up something so genius.

She had told Kira her suspicions of the plan, and her friend had taken heed of her warning, but Ally was aware that her patience was running thin. She hoped that she would be able to deal with this until they were able to expose Tilly, or until Tilly gave up and moved on.

"It's the Leaning Tower of Pizza!" Ally exclaimed, gesturing to the stack of pizza slices she had made, using a combination of her lunch and Trish's.

Trish, however, looked nowhere near as pleased as Ally, and was tapping her fingers irritably against the table. "I just want to eat, Ally."

"Then admit that the Leaning Tower of Pizza is a- _mah_ -zing," Ally replied defiantly, in her worst English accent.

This earned her an eye-roll from her Latina companion, who angrily took her slice of pizza back and took a bit, waving the slice about threateningly at Ally. She couldn't say anything with her mouth full, but she made her point perfectly clear. Ally pouted and took her slice of pizza, and bit into it with much more elegance than her companion.

"You ruined the Leaning Tower of Pizza," she mumbled sadly, looking dolefully up at Trish.

Thirteen years of friendship was a long time, though, and Trish had long ago grown immune to Ally's _puppy dog eyes_. She simply swatted the other girl away before happily munching her lunch. The two sat in a comfortable silence as they ate, but the peace was ruined when their third friend joined them.

"Goddammit, this is getting freaking ridiculous," Kira declared, angrily storming up to them. "Look at this freaking shit!" She exclaimed, thrusting forward her sneakers, holding them by the shoelaces. Ally immediately recoiled in disgust, her nose scrunching up in distaste.

"What the hell is that?" Ally asked, making a face.

Kira waved the shoes about angrily, before taking her seat. "It's _dog shit_ , that's what," she growled.

"Well, don't put it near our food." Trish looked unimpressed. "Get those nasty sneakers out of here. People _eat_ here."

A murderous look from Kira was all it took to shut Trish up. She dropped the sneakers onto the ground and sighed, leaning forward and pressing her face into the table, while her arms dangled uselessly by her sides. "I feel blue," she said sadly.

Ally rubbed her back comfortingly, while Trish awkwardly patted her head.

"I'm so sick of this," she added, sighing. Her words were somewhat muffled by the table, and the general din of the cafeteria. "She's so annoying. These were my best sneakers. I'm sad."

Once more, Ally simply rubbed her back comfortably, while Trish awkwardly patted her on the head. Ally knew that her friend just needed to get all of her feelings out. After a little while of silence, Trish leaned back and looked thoughtful.

"Well…" She said, scratching her head. "It's not as though you have to sit there and take it."

Ally rolled her eyes and made a face. "C'mon, Trish, you already know that we went to the counsellor."

"That's –" she broke off and paused before continuing. "That's not _exactly_ what I meant."

Kira's head snapped up in intrigue, while Ally continued to look confused. It seemed as though the two of them knew something that she didn't, and were having some kind of silent conversation. Ally just sat there and watched, attempting to recreate the Leaning Tower of Pizza with the remaining slices of pizza left. After a while, Kira spoke.

"Alright, fine. I give in. Dammit, Trish, this is just getting plain annoying. Give me your master revenge plan."

The Latina grinned and rubbed her hands together. "I thought you'd never ask," she sighed dramatically. "Are you sure? Once you go Trish, you can't return the dish."

"Really?" Kira said, raising an eyebrow and looking unimpressed. "You ' _can't return the dish_ '?"

"I thought it was an excellent rhyme!" Ally squawked.

"Thank you, Ally," Trish said, nodding at the brunette. "Now, if you have no more qualms with me and my genius, then allow me to begin once more. The master plan. Are you sure?"

Both Ally and Kira were more than intrigued with what sort of evil genius Trish had planned. Ally was quite familiar with the sort revenge plots the curly-haired girl was capable of unleashing – in particular, she remembered the spectacular way that Trish had suggested she fire a boy from her father's store. The employee, Dallas, was prone to breaking things and this often meant that they were barely making any profit for a few months while trying to pay for the repairs and damage. Eventually, Ally had been told she had to fire him – which was kind of hard for her, since she saw him _everywhere_ , like at school and the cell phone accessory cart, and her _dreams_ – had she mentioned that she had had a massive crush on him at the time? Well, Trish saw it fit to fire him for her. Balloons, a choir, and even confetti – she had included it all. Ally was well and truly aware that her friend was more than capable of coming up with a terrifying revenge plan that stayed within legal boundaries. She didn't agree that revenge was morally correct, but she was intrigued to hear what Trish had planned.

"So, Tilly's biggest thing is that she's super popular and pretty and whatever, right?" Trish said, lowering her voice on the off-chance that anyone was eavesdropping. "Her tagline is that she's pretty, popular, _and_ had the arm candy. Right? But now, she's only pretty and popular. She doesn't have the arm candy anymore. So, in order to put Tilly back into her place _and_ make her hurt or humiliated or whatever, the answer is simple – seduce Austin Moon."

Both Ally and Kira rolled their eyes. They had been expecting something far more theatrical than a petty _romantic drama_. Ally leaned back, now disinterested, but Trish continued despite this.

"I'm not done, I'm not done. We also need to show her who's more popular. Now, it's pretty obvious that Kira is more popular than Tilly, but if we can prove it to her, then she'll feel even worse. Imagine when Kira not only gets the one thing Tilly couldn't – the affections of Austin Moon – but _also_ claims the title of the Most Popular Girl in School." She leaned back, apparently pleased with her plot.

"I have a boyfriend," Kira stated bluntly. "And Austin's my friend. I don't want to seduce him. It'd be gross. Like seducing your brother, or something. Not to mention that it doesn't matter how popular I am – it's never going to affect Tilly because she'll continue believing she's more popular than me. Why don't you do all that for me? I mean, she hates you anyway, and you don't have a boyfriend."

Trish looked rather put out. "But it has to be someone that Tilly is already insanely jealous of! And I don't think me getting more popular is really going to affect her since she knows I'm better than her," she added, flipping her hair. Even though Trish had said it as a joke, it was true that Tilly Thompson had long ago learned not to mess with Trish de la Rosa.

"Not to mention that she and Jace have been flirting up a storm," Ally muttered under her breath, but Trish heard her and glared. The brunette smiled sheepishly at the annoyed Latina before a grin akin to that of the Cheshire cat spread over Trish's face. Feeling scared, Ally turned her attention back to the Leaning Tower of Pizza and pulled out another slice.

"Wait," Trish said, looking between Kira and Ally, the evil grin still evident on her face. "It has to be someone who Tilly hates and is insanely jealous of. It has to be someone who's single. Someone who can flirt easily with Austin and win his heart with no trouble. It has to be someone who's nice and easy enough to make popular, but for some reason, isn't popular. And who ticks all those boxes?"

Two pairs of dark brown eyes turned to Ally, and now Kira wore a similar grin to Trish.

" _Ally_." Her name was uttered by both of them at the same time, as though they had planned for this. Knowing them, they probably had. Ally wouldn't put it past them. They were both giving her the same look, the look that told her to give into peer pressure, but she didn't want to do it.

"Me?" She asked with her mouth full, pointing at herself with the slice of pizza, a confused expression on her face.

Both Kira and Trish nodded. They were still in sync – it was really starting to creep Ally out.

"No," she refused firmly.

Of course, the two just turned the dreaded _puppy dog look_ upon her, but just as they were immune to hers, she was immune to theirs. She shook her head again, folding her arms across her chest as she finished her slice and chewed vigorously. She leaned back in her chair, still shaking her head.

"Ally, c'mon," Kira pleaded, looking desperate. "It'll be really fun. Besides, you guys are already really flirty and cute. Doesn't _Austin and Ally_ have a nice ring to it?"

Ally made a face. "No. Shut up. Revenge is morally wrong. It goes against everything I stand for. Mum and Dad told me to always be the bigger person, so I'm not going to get caught up in your weird little revenge thing."

"Ally, _please,_ please, please, please, _please,_ " she begged, batting her eyelashes. "You know I would do it for you," she added, giving her a meaningful glance.

Once more, Ally shook her head firmly. " _No_ ," she said, rolling her eyes. "And you've already used the whole 'you know I'd do it for you' three times this year. No more. You promised you wouldn't pull that one anymore. And besides, like I said, revenge is morally wrong. If everybody took revenge it would be like the Middle Ages, before the renaissance – haven't you ever read _Hamlet_? Revenge gets nobody anywhere and all it leads to is unnecessary death, and poor Horatio has to tell everybody why Hamlet died and – revenge just _isn't necessary_ , and I mean, like, look at The Lion King! Simba got chased out of the pride lands! And yeah, I know that it's based off Hamlet, but the message is still there – revenge is bad! Be _sides_ , even if I _did_ agree to this, how the _hell_ would _I_ seduce _Austin_? He's like, so nice – he's just – I mean, he could get _any girl,_ even the ones he doesn't want and – and maybe even a few _boys_! And – I barely know him! We talk _sometimes_ , I _guess_ , but it might seem a little weird if I suddenly start flirting with him. Not to mention that if I _did_ make him fall for me, it would be incredibly _mean_ of me to just _lead him on_ like that – and don't even _suggest_ that I'm going to fall for him, because yeah, that's a possibility or whatever – but then I'd have a relationship based on _lies_ and lying is bad and you shouldn't make me do things I don't want to do because you're my _friends_ – but, oh… I suppose, I'm _your_ friend, so I should be helping… But it's wrong! It's morally, and ethically wrong! And I don't even know how to be _popular_ or how to _seduce_ anybody and –"

Something warm and slippery slid down the back of her shirt, and Ally immediately leaped up with a yelp. The smell of tomato and pasta filled her nostrils, and she didn't have to see the state of her shirt to know that the pristine white shirt had been _ruined_.

"Oops," Tilly said, spaghetti and bolognaise dripping off of the side of her plate as she looked innocently at Ally. "I must have tripped." She flashed another smile and then continued her walk across to the opposite side of the cafeteria, her gaggle of mindless friends following her and laughing.

Ally remained where she was, her back slowly growing cold as the tomato soaked through her shirt and dripped down her back, and the spaghetti slid down her spine and slipped out the opposite end of her shirt. She had a feeling that her brand new jeans were also ruined, since she could feel that the waistband of it was damp and chafing against her skin. Her eyes were lit with fury, her face contorted into _The Look,_ with her nostrils flaring and her eyes narrowed, her lips twisted into a stern pout. Trish and Kira simply stared at their friend, their eyes wide.

"Alright," she said, gritting her teeth. "How do we carry through this plan?"

 **A/N: Whoa! So there we have it! As always, reviews are always appreciated! :)**

 **To ALL my lovely reviewers: Thank you so much for all your kind words! I'm so glad you guys are intrigued, and I hope that this turns out as nicely as you're all expecting :D**

Iloveausllybemmettbrallie: Ah! I'll check out some of your stories, I'm sure they're awesome :D Thank you so much, I'm glad you're enjoying!

Dont-Stop-Believin: AW THANK YOU! I thought I was supa sly by using Tilly ;)

Guest: Oh goodness, I'm blushing! Thank you very much, I try my best to proof read and I workshop a lot on grammar and writing so that I can be the best I can be :D

Axswiftxa13: I hope it comes out really adorable omg. I have seven chapters for this written so far and I'm reeeeeeeeally keen to post chapters 5 and 6 omg

Guest:  YOU'RE SO CUTE WHAT THE HECK COME OFF GUEST AND LET ME LOVE YOU

Guest: WHAT ARE YOU "HECK YES"ING ABOUT OMG YOU GOOF :*

EllaGx: Thank you, love! I hope I updated fast enough ;)

Chubby bunny: YOU'RE BACK! hELLO! You're so cute, what the actual heck?! I really hope this meets your standards :D

Lookin' For Treble: Omg I've never actually seen the whole musical, just a few numbers from it, and the soundtrack is so amazing?! But squeeeeee you like my stories hehehehee

Guest: No worries! I actually agree with you, I've noticed that I have a tendency to overwrite a bit and I go too far into detail. But anyway, thank you for letting me know! I'll work on that and hopefully it'll improve :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally (clearly, otherwise all of this would be canon?) and I'm in no way affiliated with Disney.**

 **Word Count: 5 154**

 **A/N: This is a short one idk sorry I just couldn't stretch it out any longer lol. I tried to stretch it out so I'm sorry if there are any awkward lulls. Nonetheless, I have a feeling you'll like this one.**

* * *

Warm sunlight shone down on Austin's back as he washed his new car with his dad on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. The car, itself, was not new – but it was new to him, and hence, it was his _new car_. Despite the fact that his parents could easily afford to buy him a brand new, shiny car of the latest model and most prestigious brand, they had told Austin that if he wanted a car, he had to buy it himself. And so, after almost a year and a half of slaving away at his parents' mattress store, Austin had finally saved up enough money to buy his own car. Granted, it was second-hand, a brand he had never heard of and a model so ancient he was almost _certain_ that his _grandfather_ would be familiar with it, and it was incredibly dusty – but Austin had bought it with his own money, and it was his _baby._

His dad had seen him pulling up in front of their house, and at first had come out to see why a strange car was being parked in his driveway. Upon realising that it was his only son, bumbling about in a second-hand car that he had bought with his _own_ savings – whilst making sure he didn't spend _all_ of his savings on it – Mike Moon had been ecstatic, and had very enthusiastically agreed to help his son wash the car. It was making weird noises with the engine, but the two agreed that it would be a nice project for the father and son to bond over. That was for another day, though, and at the moment, they were attempting to wash off layers upon layers of dirt, mud, and dust off of the recent purchase.

The two worked in a comfortable silence, until Mike suddenly let out an excited cheer.

"I can actually see the real colour of your car!" He exclaimed, where he had wiped the dirt off enough to reveal the red paint beneath it.

The blond rolled his eyes and shoved his dad. "Shut up, Dad," he grumbled. "I knew it was red."

Mike simply laughed and turned the hose on his son, effectively dousing him once more from head to toe. With an annoyed glare, Austin took off his soaking shirt and threw it to the ground, shaking his hair out and attempting to wet his dad even just a little bit. It didn't work.

"You know, you could always go in and put on another shirt," Mike said to his son, after a little while of amiable silence. Somehow, Mike had managed to stay almost completely dry, but Austin's jeans and hair were both completely soaked. He was glad he had left his phone and wallet _inside_ the car.

"It's hot," Austin said, shrugging. "Besides, Mrs Clancy was telling me that the neighbourhood needs more eye candy."

"Mrs Clancy? As in the seventy-four year old woman who lives down the road?"

Austin nodded in confirmation. "Yup," he said, popping the 'p'. "She told me to take off my shirt and find a girlfriend."

Mrs Clancy was a kind of old lady who would make the sort of jokes and sexual innuendoes that Austin would expect from a teenaged girl, but she wasn't lecherous in the slightest – and although she would often tell him to parade his bare chest and find a nice girlfriend, if she actually saw him in all his shirtless glory at the moment, he was almost certain that she would tell him to go put a shirt _on_.

Mike rolled his eyes before looking at his son fondly. "What happened in the end? With that Tilly girl, I mean."

This cued quite a dramatic reaction from the blond, and he shivered violently. "It _finally_ got through to her that I don't want to be with her."

"Austin. She's a seventeen-year-old girl. You're acting as though she's some crazed man-eater."

Austin made a face. "She was! She scared me," he said sadly, and his father let out a deep chuckle. "Besides," Austin added, "the surprising part isn't that she finally understands that we're not in a relationship any more. The surprising part is that _Dez_ came up with the idea to make her understand."

"You know, I really don't think you give poor Dez enough credit," Mike said, moving around the car to spray the other side. "Doesn't he call himself _The Love Whisperer_? He's a lot smarter than you boys let him believe."

"Whatever. You know he says weird things. Anyway, I'm glad that things are over between me and Tilly. I feel, like, I don't know. Free, I guess? It was like – honestly, Dad, she just _wouldn't_ let things go. I've been trying to get away from her for a _whole year_ ," he whined, pouting at the older man.

Mike simply rolled his eyes with a smile. "I never really liked that girl much," he admitted. "Of course, your mother and I tried to be civil since she _was_ your girlfriend and all, but boy – that girl sure does have a mouth on her. She ought to learn some manners." He nodded in agreement with himself, before he hummed softly to himself.

Before Austin could really formulate any response more coherent than a vigorous nod of agreement, a familiar white car was pulling up at the top of his driveway. With a panicked stare, Austin put his finger over his lips in a _shushing_ motion to his father, before he opened his car door and dove inside, shuffling about and hiding under a blanket. He was suddenly glad that the windows were muddy and dirty – as though she had been summoned by their conversation, Tilly Thompson was gracefully making her way down his driveway and chatting to his Dad. Austin could hear the muffled conversation, although he couldn't make out any distinct words, and he sincerely hoped she did not notice him there. After a few minutes, the sound died down, and the door swung open.

 _Please don't be Tilly, please don't be Tilly,_ please _don't be Tilly._

Mike Moon smirked down at his son and folded his arms across his chest, an eyebrow raised, as though waiting for an answer.

"Oh, shut up. _As if_ you wouldn't have hidden," Austin grumbled, climbing out of the car. "Where did she go?"

"She went inside to see if you were in your room," he said. "Go on, go on, we can clean the car later. You can hide at Dez's house, since you're so afraid of a _teenaged girl_."

A vague grunt of protest was all Austin could do, but just as he was starting the car, he heard his mother calling.

"Austin, honey, Tilly is here to see you!"

" _Mum_ ," Austin groaned, throwing his head against his steering wheel in despair, and sighing loudly when the car _honked_. With a sad sigh, he got out of the car and dejectedly picked up his still-soaking t-shirt, before he slipped the wet fabric over the head – he would rather catch a cold then have _Tilly Thompson_ gawk and stare at him, as she seemed to so often do – and looked miserably at his father, who simply smiled back with an impossibly amused glint in his eyes. It was true that Austin could simply stay outside, but he knew that when Tilly wanted something, she made sure she got it – so if he didn't go inside to talk to her, she would come outside to talk to _him_.

When Austin entered his house, a weight was suddenly thrown around him, and he looked down, only to be greeted with nice-smelling blonde hair. It was true that Tilly was a very attractive girl – there was no denying that – but she scared him, and made him feel uncomfortable. He carefully extracted himself from her grip, and crossed the room to the opposite side.

"So, uh… Why are you here?" He asked her, almost scared to find her answer.

"Your little jig is up," she declared. "I've thought about it, and there's absolutely no way you'd have broken up with me. You're obviously in some kind of bet, right?"

Austin shook his head, annoyed. "Oh, my fu—can you _please_ just _leave me alone_? This is _literally_ bordering on _sexual harassment_." Of course, Austin knew nothing about the law, so he wasn't sure if that was true – but it certainly felt that way.

"Austy," she began, but he cut her off.

"Please stop calling me that, and please stop calling me," he said. He motioned to the door. "And please don't come here again."

"But, Aust—"

" _No_ , Tilly," he said firmly. "You're beginning to make it _really_ hard for me to be polite. Can you please _leave_ and _respect_ my decision? If not, I'm going to have to tell an authority."

That seemed to work, because she rolled her eyes, and Austin heard the words _'stupid blond drama queen_ ,' before she left his house. He had a feeling that she wasn't referring to herself.

Later, at dinner, Austin's parents were in an amused discussion over Tilly. They both agreed that she kept bothering their precious son due to his good looks and kind nature, although Mike argued that she could probably find someone who worked harder in school, whilst Mimi disagreed and said that nobody was better than her little prince. Austin moodily pushed his peas around the plate, not wanting to eat the vegetables – but he had to eat them, if he wanted dessert.

"She _is_ quite bothersome," Mimi said thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "You would think that after being told not to do something, she would do the courteous thing and do so."

Austin nodded vigorously in agreement. "She's so annoying," he sighed. "And she just doesn't get the picture!"

"Well, son," Mike said, shaking his head from across the table as he cut into his steak. "From my experience, before I met your mother, the easiest way to show a girl that you're not into her anymore is to move on and find a nice girl who likes you back."

It was interesting advice, and Austin leaned back as he stroked his jaw thoughtfully. He thought about a short brunette, with chocolate eyes and the occasional sassy mumble he had overheard when she thought no one was listening, or the gleeful laugh when she was with her friends, completely unaware of him watching her, captivated, from all the way across the cafeteria. He thought about a petite frame and amazing songs that she had shyly performed when the teacher commended her for getting the highest mark in class. He thought about her dainty hands and the way they flew across the keys of the piano, the guitar, the violin – whatever instrument was being graced by her delicate fingertips. He thought about her face-splitting grin, the kind that made his heart leap out of his chest and his own grin widen. He thought about all the times he tried to talk to her, but she hadn't heard him or she was too shy to keep up the conversation for very long when they were finally – _finally_ – alone. He had never wanted to rudely push his way into her life, but he was excruciatingly aware that she was far too shy to even try stepping into his. And so, sadly, he had never been able to gain a status higher than 'sorta-friend' in her life, but she was more than that to him – and yet, she didn't have the slightest clue.

His dad smirked at him from across the table, and his mother beamed, her eyes sparkling. It suddenly occurred to him that he was sporting a dopey smile as he thought about the brown-eyed beauty, so he stuck his tongue out childishly at his parents and turned his attention back to the peas on his plate. A few more spoons of the disgusting vegetable, and he would be rewarded with delicious dessert. His mother had promised him a Triple Chocolate Banana Sundae, and it was his absolute favourite – he always chose that, over anything else she offered him.

Although, if Ally Dawson was available on the menu, he certainly wouldn't mind having her instead.

* * *

Thursday was always pizza day. It was a day of just the three bros, hanging out. However, the boys' sacred tradition had been intruded upon, today, and Austin could only stare moodily into his strawberry smoothie as Dez and his girlfriend made googly eyes at each other, and Jace made gagging motions beside them. Carrie was sitting side-saddle in Dez's lap, her arms around his neck. One of his hands were supporting her, rested in the small of her back, and the other hand was loosely draped over her thighs. They looked comfortable, and every now and then, when Dez thought neither Austin nor Jace were looking, he would press his lips against Carrie's temple. Of course, subtlety had never been the redhead's strong point, and Austin had caught him every time, but he hadn't said anything – it made him feel as though he had intruded upon some sort of personal moment. After a little while, Austin grew bored with the silence that he and his friends had lapsed into.

"Dez," Austin whined jokingly, shaking his head at Carrie with a smile and a good-natured twinkle in his eye. "You're not allowed to bring _girls_ to our _bro_ nights."

Carrie grinned, and stepped in with a reply before Dez could even open his mouth. "Ah, but he didn't bring me. Technically, I brought him, since I drove." She looked pleased with her explanation.

 _But who invited her?_ Austin thought sadly. He had nothing against Carrie – in fact, she was a very sweet girl, and he was incredibly glad that Dez had met somebody who was just as weird as he was, but Thursday was _bro_ day. Bro, as in _brothers_. Not brothers, plus a significant other. It didn't help that Jace was constantly texting somebody, and Austin had nobody to talk to. He was bored, and resorted to building a tower of the pizza slice.

"Look," he said, gesturing. "I'm making a pizza tower."

Jace glanced up, suddenly excited. "Oh! You know Ally? Trish's friend? She made a tower of pizza the other day. She called it the Leaning Tower of Pizza." He sniggered, and grinned, shuffling over to help Austin build the tower.

"Do you talk to Ally?" Austin asked, a twinge of jealousy running through him. Since when were Jace and Ally friends? Why wasn't _he_ Ally's friend? He hadn't ever hung out with her alone, or anything, but he sure as hell knew he had more in common with her than Jace did.

"Nah," Jace said, shaking his head. "Trish texted me about it. Apparently she got really excited and wouldn't let poor Trish eat the pizza until she agreed that the Leaning Tower of Pizza was 'a _maz_ ing'."

Austin chuckled, imagining the annoyed Latina glaring at the bubbly brunette. He imagined Ally excitedly gesturing to the stack of pizza, and smiled to himself, shaking his head. "Sounds about right," he agreed quietly. After a moment, a thought occurred to him and he looked at Jace suspiciously. " _Trish_ texted you, huh?"

He hadn't realised that Dez and Carrie had been paying attention to them, but the blonde girl looked up and smirked.

"They're in love," she declared, and then grinned at Dez. "He looks at Trish the same way Dez looks at—"

Austin cut her off. "See, Dez? This is why we don't bring _girl_ to our bro night! You know I love you, Carrie, but tonight is about _bromance_ , not _romance_." He pouted.

Carrie looked confused, before she shook her head. "What's romantic about the way Dez looks at my pet goat? He loves Gerome," she said with a sigh, smiling at the red head. "Jace looks at Trish the same way Dez looks at Gerome."

Dez nodded in agreement and sighed blissfully, looking off into the distance at something Austin couldn't see or fathom. "Ah, Gerome. I love Gerome."

 _Yup_ , Austin thought to himself. _Those two are made for each other._

Meanwhile, Jace was spluttering and shaking his head, apparently attempting to deny that he felt any attraction to the fiery girl. "W-what? No! It's not like that at all! Trish and I – we're just – she just – we – uh…"

"Aw! He's so in love he can't even finish his sentences!" Dez exclaimed, before looking at Carrie with googly eyes once more. "When I first met Carrie, I could barely string together sentences."

Beside Austin, Jace began making gagging noises again, before his phone vibrated and he glanced down at it immediately. It was Austin's turn to gag.

He stared down moodily into his strawberry smoothie, and slurped loudly – a few of the other people in the mall food court gave him judging looks and tutted, shaking their heads as they walked past. Austin heard Jace breathe in sharply, and watched the brunet glance up with his eyes widening.

"What?" Austin asked curiously, wondering what caused the sudden change in his friend's behaviour.

"Well, I asked Trish what she was up to and she said she was hanging out with her friend at Sonic Boom. And now apparently they're heading home and I was all, 'are you in the mall? I'm in the mall!' and she was all 'yeah! I'm just passing Billl's Surf Shop', and I was all 'I'm in the food court!' and now she's coming over here! Dude!"

" _Dude_ ," Austin groaned, pouting. "A _not_ her girl? What happened to _bros only_ day?"

Dez chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Austin, it's just one day. Besides, aren't you and Jace staying over at my place tonight? I can assure you that there won't be any girls there except my sister."

Austin mumbled something in annoyance but relented, giving Carrie a small smile when she looked at him with concern. She really was a sweet girl, and he sincerely hoped that she and Dez would last forever.

"Trish!" Jace suddenly exclaimed, waving over at the girl.

Austin glanced up, and suddenly, his bad mood dissipated.

"Hey, Jace," Trish said, walking over with a short girl in a Sonic Boom uniform in tow. "Ally just finished her shift," she explained. "Her dad is waiting for us in the car park."

Jace visibly deflated, evidently thinking he'd get to spend more time with the fiery girl, and Ally tugged on Trish's sleeve. She was so _shy_ , Austin thought, waving at her with a smile. She waved back at him, before turning back to Trish and tugging on her sleeve. He noticed how she focussed solely on Trish, too shy to try talking to the others. Dez and Carrie waved at her, and she waved back politely, before resuming to pull on Trish's sleeve.

"Quit it, Ally," Trish complained, swatting her friend.

Ally pouted, and with a dejected sigh, sat beside Austin. "Hey," she said to him, resting her face in her hand and leaning on the table. Her legs kicked at the rungs of the tall chair she sat in, and Austin shook his head with a small smile.

"Pizza?" He offered, gesturing to his pizza tower. He heard Dez mutter something that sounded an awful lot like the word ' _hypocrite'_.

Her eyes lit up. "Oh, boy, do I have the best pun in the world for you. Are you ready for this? You have just created –", she paused for dramatic effect, "– the _Leaning Tower of Pizza_! Get it? It's like, the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Except _pizza_." She looked pleased with herself.

Austin laughed, thinking that the lame joke _was_ funny when it actually came from her. There she was before him, gesturing wildly at the pizza tower just the way he had imagined.

"Would you like a slice from the Leaning Tower of Pizza, Ally?" He asked, leaning in close with a grin.

She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by her phone ringtone going off. It was one of those default tones, as if she couldn't be bothered customising her phone. He also noticed that her phone case was nothing extravagant – it was decorated with treble clef symbols and musical notes, but it was just a plain, hard case.

"Hi Dad," she said, answering the phone and smiling apologetically at Austin, as though she felt it was rude to answer her phone when she was in the company of someone else. "Sorry, yeah, Trish just ran into a friend. We're on our way now. Sorry. Bye. See you soon. Yup. Bye." Ally tucked her phone away and then glanced up, making eye contact with Trish.

The two girls had some sort of silent conversation, and evidently Ally won, as Trish dolefully bid goodbye to Jace.

"Bye, Austin!" Ally chirped, waving at him. "Maybe some other time," she added, gesturing to the Leaning Tower of Pizza.

"Yeah, sounds good," he responded eagerly, waving as she left with her friend. When he glanced at Dez, the red-head was smirking, and Austin rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up."

"'Oh, _Dez_ ,'" Dez imitated Austin in a dramatic, falsetto voice. "'How could you _possibly_ bring a _girl_ to our _bros_ night?'"

"I didn't bring her!" Austin defended meekly.

Dez chuckled, and even Jace seemed amused.

"I think it's sweet," Carrie commented, and Dez grinned at her.

"I think _you're_ sweet, babe," he responded easily.

Once more, Jace pretended to gag, before his phone went off and he focussed on that instead. All around him, his friends were preoccupied, and he settled back grumpily. He was happy his friends were happy, but Thursday was _Pizza Day_ , a day for just them, where they pretended nobody else and nothing else existed. It was just The Dream Team with laughs and smiles and the occasional cry, and Austin while loved that his friends had found something – some _one_ – outside of their small group, he couldn't help but feel left out.

* * *

"Alright, that was excellent. It's time for you to go home, but that was a _fantastic_ rehearsal, kids. It's really starting to sound good now." Mrs Suzy smiled at the actors assembled onstage, and then disappeared back into the orchestra pit, most likely to give the same speech to the orchestra, who were packing up their instruments and getting ready to leave.

Austin jumped off of the stage and walked over to his bag, which he had left in the seats of the audience. He was gulping down water, his throat dry from all the singing, when Kira approached him with a smile. He waved at the cheerleader, before swallowing and screwing the lid back onto his water bottle.

"Hey, Kira," he said. "Nice job today! Although, I suppose I wasn't expecting any less," he teased, nudging her.

He was rewarded with a wide grin, as she sighed happily. "I'm so happy. My final production in high school, and I get one of the lead roles. It's pretty awesome. Speaking of – nice job yourself, mister," she said, poking his cheek.

Austin pretended to be modest, and shrugged, but from the way she rolled her eyes he knew that she could see right through him. There was no point in being modest, he thought – he had a talent, and he didn't want to deny it to himself, so instead he shared it with others and was very grateful for the talent he possessed. A life without music was not a life he wanted to live.

He turned to leave, but noticed Kira sit down and cross one leg over the other, her eyes trained on the stage door. She was clearly waiting for someone, so Austin sat down beside her and leaned back, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"Who're you waiting for?" He asked curiously, following her gaze to the stage door.

"Ally," she responded, with a smile.

"Ally? Oh, cool, I'll wait with you," he said, nodding decisively. Part of him was waiting with her because he didn't think it would be fair to leave her alone, but another part of him just wanted a glimpse of Ally before she left with her friend. Perhaps they'd even invite him to join them! It took him a moment to realise that, for some reason, his words had made her smirk. "What?" He asked, pouting and poking her cheek. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Kira said, attempting to be nonchalant as she tried not to laugh. "Nothing at all."

"You're laughing at me!"

"Am not!" She responded, shaking her head. "You don't have to wait," she pointed out. "When Ally gets here, I'm just going to ditch you anyway."

Austin rolled his eyes and clutched his heart dramatically, pretending to be offended. "You wound me, Starr."

Kira made a face, and shoved him. "You bore me, Moon," she snipped back, sticking her tongue out at him childishly.

An involuntary grin spread over his face. He really couldn't help it – hanging out with Kira was what he imagined having a sister would be like. As an only child, Austin had never had siblings, but hanging out with Kira Starr and Dez Wade were certainly what he thought having siblings would be like. She teased him the way a sister would, and he was glad they were friends. A few times, he had considered asking her how she had managed to break into Ally's shell – he had noticed that she, Ally, and Trish, were exceedingly close – but he had always chickened out, feeling as though she would mock him for his little crush on the cute girl from his music class.

"C'mon, just tell me," he pouted, poking her in the side.

Kira squealed and flinched away, laughing as she shook her head. "No way, kiddo," she said, ruffling his hair.

" _Kiddo_? I'm only two months younger than you," he exclaimed, shaking his head in wonder.

"And that makes me your elder. So respect me."

Austin simply glared at her. He leaned back, content to sit in the comfortable silence with her, but after a little while got bored. "When did you get those sneakers? They're nice," he commented, pointing to the clean, white sport shoes she wore.

Her face contorted into disgust and she stared at them grumpily, her arms folded across her chest. "Tilly got her prissy little dog to crap in my old ones so I had to buy new ones," she complained.

"Ew," he said, also looking disgusted. "Man, that girl just does not give up. You'd think she'd get the picture, but _nooo_."

Kira nodded vigorously, as though excited that she had finally discovered someone who disliked the blonde cheerleader as much as she did. "Oh my gosh, _yes_. She's trying to get me kicked off the musical so that she can be in it, and she keeps trying to turn the cheer squad against me. Like, _hello?_ I'm the co-captain. They like me more than her, anyway. It's really ridiculous. Like, is she ever going to _grow up_? She's almost eighteen!" She leaned back, shaking her head. "She acts like a nine-year-old, honestly. She thinks if she chucks a temper tantrum she'll get her way."

Austin nodded, his eyes wide. "Yeah!" He exclaimed. "It's – well, it's rude," he said, unable to say anything truly mean about the girl since his mother had always told him to be the bigger person.

"Yeah." She was quiet for a moment, before she continued, glancing at him uncomfortably. "Actually, Austin," she began. "Trish kind of came up with a plan. It's sort of to put Tilly in her place. And we kind of need your help-"

She was cut off by a small brunette flopping into her lap. "Allyson Dawson, at your service!" She chirped, sprawling out dramatically across Kira's lap and leaning back. It was only when her head landed on Austin's lap that she sat up straight and jumped off of Kira's lap, before turning to face him. "Sorry, Austin, I guess I didn't see you there," she said shyly, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly and looking more than just _a little bit_ embarrassed.

Although he was still curious about what it was that Kira wanted to say – he was _definitely_ intrigued by the words ' _Trish kind of came up with a plan_ ', since he had heard that she was absolutely _fantastic_ at revenge plots – he found himself grinning at Ally despite the fact that she had interrupted Kira.

"Ah, no worries," he said, standing and smiling at the two girls. Kira stood as well, and linked arms with Ally.

"Well, we're off," Kira said, waving at the blond before turning to Ally.

"Bye, Austin!" Ally chirped, smiling and waving exaggeratedly at him, before turning and leaving with Kira. Before they reached the door, Kira whispered something, and the two glared at each other, before whatever argument they were having was clearly lost by Ally. She glared at Kira before she turned and grinned at Austin. "You still owe me that slice of pizza," she called, before turning around.

"Duly noted!" He called back, waving, despite the fact that their backs were turned and they couldn't see him. He picked up his bag and strolled out more slowly, his thoughts whirling as he made his way to his car.

 _Ally Dawson_ , he thought to himself with a dopey grin. She was an enigma, really. A few times, he had thought he had finally broken through the wall she put up, to separate herself from the outside world – a few times, he had thought he was one of the few people she called a 'friend', but she had never initiated a conversation and he doubted that she even thought about _him_ as much as _he_ thought about _her_. He reflected that although they were _sort of_ friends, they never _really_ hung out outside of class, except for a few chance encounters in the hallway or when he strolled into Sonic Boom – and lo and behold, there she stood, behind the counter in all of her sassy but shy glory.

Mixed signals, he thought. That was what she sent him. Sometimes, she'd be able to fire up a sassy and somehow impossibly flirty remark like ' _That's twice I saved your sorry ass_. _You owe me._ ' or imply they were to have a date – or, at the least, hang out _alone_ – with another impossibly flirty remark like ' _You still owe me that slice of pizza._ ' And then sometimes – well, sometimes he'd get the incredibly shy and dismissive, ' _Sorry. I guess I didn't see you there.'_ What was a guy supposed to think? As he started up the engine of his new-not-new car, he thought back to all the times he had elicited a smile from the shy brunette.

For the rest of the evening, all Austin could think about was the enigma that was Ally Dawson.

* * *

 **A/N: Welp, there you go! I've hinted at it in earlier chapters that Austin has a crush on her – but now it's explicit! Yay!**

 **To my lovely reviewers:** WHY ARE YOU ALL SO SWEET TO ME I FEEL LIKE A POTATO. And thank you for letting me know how SATs/Finals work! Now I know where to go with the next part of an upcoming chapter :D

Lookin' For Treble: BABE YOURE MAKING ME BLUSH. And yes his voice is like an angel *u* And hehe I'm really keen for Trish's plan and how things are gonna go down

A: Aw, thank you, this was so sweet! I've been feeling a little self-conscious about my writing recently because my sister was kinda judge-y and reading over my shoulder as I typed and it was very nerve-wracking omilord BUT I DIGRESS. I can't just _tell_ you what happens! You're gonna have to read and find out ;)

Adorableness: Heh I hope this sated you somewhat! And yes, Ally has to seduce Austin, but I guess it's not really going to be that hard for her to do so. You can PM me, or tweet me if you need someone to rant to haha :D

ROTBTDreader: Your REVIEW made me happy :*

Axswiftxa13: Ahhh, you're too sweet. And I can't believe it's over either! :( But at least we always have the fandom and fanfics and stuff :D

EllaGx: Aww, thanks!

Cornyshor: SYDNEY PLS

ElizabethandDarcy: Thank you, love! A few people told me about how it works and I was kinda surprised that so many people were xD But thank you anyway and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally (clearly, otherwise all of this would be canon?) and I'm in no way affiliated with Disney.**

 **Word Count: 6 157**

 **A/N: Whoops! I've actually had this chapter written for a while, but I've been too lazy to post it. Anyway, this is one of my favourite chapters thus far, so without further ado – please enjoy!**

* * *

Her feet hurt. Her head hurt. Her eyes hurt. Her hands hurt. Even her _throat_ hurt, although why her throat was sore was a mystery that even she couldn't figure out. Beside her, Trish and Kira were squealing some sort of nonsense, and the pile of clothes in her arms simply grew higher and higher as the pair threw random things at her. With each garment, they would chirp something along the lines of how it was figure flattering, or how the colour brought out her eyes, or how it matched her favourite shade of lipstick. It was only when they began to add shoes onto the pile that she drew the line, and began to make her way over to the changing room. They followed her, but she noticed them picking up more clothes as they ambled across the store.

Ally was not sure how her friends had convinced her that they were going to buy her a whole new wardrobe, or why they even found it necessary, since she personally thought she had fantastic taste. However, Trish de la Rosa would not take no for an answer, and Kira Starr had some unusual ability to make people do whatever she wanted. All she knew, was that when she had woken up in the morning, she had planned to finish her homework and settle down with a good book. She just didn't have the energy for 'hanging out' today, and while her friends normally respected that she needed time to 'recharge', as she phrased it, today they were adamant that they needed to take her shopping. It was true that she liked shopping, and she did enjoy being with her friends, but she was tired and grumpy that her initial plans had been ruined.

 _They do things they don't like for you, too,_ she told herself.

Besides, it wasn't as though this were a common occurrence. When Ally told them that she didn't feel up to hanging out, they would normally just go about their plans without her, and tell her about it later if she asked. She figured that since they were usually so wonderful, she could spare _one_ day of 'recharging' and hang out with them. She _was_ having fun, but a small part of her kept wandering back to her big, plushy beanbag, and the book she had been planning on reading.

Trish and Kira were busy sifting through the assortment of clothes they had declared ' _would look_ great _on Ally_ ', and Ally was busy trying them on. Each time she stepped out, they would scrutinise her from every possible angle, ask her questions about how comfortable she felt in it, how _she_ felt she looked, and then gave their opinion. They put all the clothes that Ally didn't like or feel comfortable in into the _'no way'_ pile, put the clothes that they had differing opinions on in the _'maybe_ ' pile, and then any clothes that all three of them agreed was fantastic was put into the ' _yes definitely_ ' pile. It was no wonder that Ally was tired, because just looking at the size of the _maybe_ pile was enough to make her wish she was at home.

"What is this _for_ again?" Ally asked, as she stepped out of the cubicle in one of the _maybe_ outfits.

"In order to make you popular, you have to look the part," Trish stated matter-of-factly.

"But at the same time, we don't want to change your style," Kira added, petting Ally awkwardly on the head. "We just want to… grab people's attention. But we don't want to completely change your wardrobe. Just some more… figure flattering clothing. Nothing too revealing or tight," she promised.

Ally rolled her eyes and gestured to the pile of clothes. "You're well aware that I would have to work overtime and extra shifts if I wanted to pay for all of this, right? And Kira Starr, I _swear_ , if you say you're going to—"

"I'll pay," Kira said.

The brunette grit her teeth. " _No,_ " she said firmly.

"But it's not a big deal! Dad won't mind."

"But I'll feel like I have to pay you back!" Ally protested, pouting at Kira.

"You can pay me back when you're famous," Kira joked, nudging her with her hip. "You know that I could just ask Daddy to put you on his label."

Ally rolled her eyes. "I am _not_ going to use you to get on your dad's record label. That's _nepotism_ , and it's morally wrong. If I'm going to get on your dad's label, it has to be of my own merit. Not because I'm his daughter's best friend. Besides, I'd probably prefer to wait until after I get my degree before I try to make it in the industry. Not to mention that I – I can barely perform in front of my _class_ , let alone a whole stadium of people! I get so nervous when Ms Suzy asks me to perform. It takes me, like, a whole _week_ to pluck up the courage, and even then, I can only do it because she's so lovely and -"

"Blah, blah, blah," Trish said, stepping between the arguing girls and putting more clothes in Ally's arms. "Less chitchat, more shopping. We'll settle the finances later." She rolled her eyes, and muttered something under her breath. Ally was almost certain that it was not complimentary.

After they had finally decided which clothes were a 'yes', and which were a 'no', Ally hauled the load up to the counter and sighed as she watched the bill get higher and higher. Luckily for her, Trish had an eye for things on sale, and since it was almost Valentine's Day, there were a lot of women's clothes on sale. Even better, Ally had convinced them that she didn't need a whole new wardrobe, and they had settled on getting her just six new outfits as opposed to the seventeen they had previously wanted.

"That'll be three hundred and sixty-eight dollars, nineteen cents," the cashier chirped, once she had bagged everything. Ally looked at her credit card dolefully as she passed it to the lady, but before the lady could grab it, Kira put her own forward and smiled.

"Kira," Ally hissed, swatting away her friend. But the lady had already accepted Kira's card, and Ally could only watch in horror as her friend paid for the whole transaction.

 _I'll pay her back_ , Ally thought to herself, glaring at her friend.

They gathered the bags and began to make their way across the mall to the food court. Trish decided to take this as an ample opportunity to really analyse Ally's chances of skyrocketing to the top, in order for their revenge plan against Tilly to work. (Personally, Ally still thought revenge was morally wrong.)

"Let's see," Trish said, tapping her chin as they walked. Ally wasn't really sure why Trish was the only one not carrying bags. "You're nice enough that everybody likes you, anyway, but to become 'popular', you have to start talking to people."

"I talk to people!" Ally said defensively, pouting.

Trish rolled her eyes. " _Besides_ giving people homework advice."

"I – okay." She looked down dejectedly, upon the realisation that she really did rarely speak to others outside of schoolwork.

Her friend ploughed on. "So you're pretty, smart, and amiable, and soon you're going to actually start talking to people…" She trailed off and looked thoughtful. "Well, I mean, Cassidy is having that Valentine's party on Saturday. And it's invite only, but I happen to have a 'plus one' written on my invitation."

"I have one too!" Kira added excitedly, randomly jumping into the conversation. She smiled shyly. "I'm bringing Elliot."

Ally held a hand to her heart and let out an _aww_ , before Trish rolled her eyes and cut her off.

"We can do the mushy stuff later. So, you'll come to the party, chitchat a bit, and boom, you're on your way to being more liked than Tilly."

"It's not like that would be that hard," Ally muttered. "Nobody really actually likes her all that much."

Her two friends burst into laughter, grinning at their quiet yet outspoken friend. They were clearly amused as they sat down in the food court, still giggling away. Ally rolled her eyes and stood to go order their food when it became evident that neither of them were going to do so. She returned to the table minutes later, with their orders placed neatly on a tray, and found Kira and Trish deep in discussion.

"Well," Trish said in a low voice. "It's not like it would be _hard_ to get Austin to fall in love with Ally, seeing as he's already all flirty with her and whatnot."

"Yeah, and I'm like, eighty percent sure that he has a crush on her," Kira added, in an equally hushed tone. "The other day, after rehearsal, he was all 'why are you still waiting here, Kira?' and when I told him I was waiting for Ally he decided to stay and wait with me. It really wouldn't be that hard."

"But we don't want to get his heart broken, too," Trish pointed out. "He's a nice guy. If Ally doesn't like him in that way, we shouldn't get her to manipulate him like that. That would be mean, leading him on like that. We only want Tilly to get hurt, not Austin as well."

"It would be mean," Kira echoed in agreement.

Trish paused. "But like, imagine if they _fell in love_. Wouldn't that be cute?"

Kira nodded, and Ally cleared her throat when it appeared that there was a lull in their conversation. They snapped their heads in her direction, and looked distinctly embarrassed to have been caught talking about _The Plan_ and about Ally as though she were just their pawn.

"You know," Ally said, as she sat down and handed them each their lunches. "We could just _tell_ Austin about this. He's pretty cool, he'd probably be willing to do it."

Kira nodded in agreement, but Trish looked uneasy. It was hard to tell that Trish was actually a perfectionist, due to the fact that she didn't do her work and was immensely lazy, but Ally knew that when Trish _was_ doing something, it had to be _perfect_ , otherwise she had wasted her time. Often, Trish wouldn't even _start_ a project, because it was easier to say that it wasn't perfect because she didn't try, as opposed to admitting that she tried, and she did not do it perfectly. The plan had to go exactly to how Trish planned it, or the girl would be upset, and Ally sighed before rolling her eyes.

"I have music class with Austin," Ally pointed out, subdued. "We've done a few projects together. If I just talk to him a little bit more often, maybe your plan will go without a hitch. I mean, we're kind of sort-of-friends, I guess. And sometimes he comes into the store and we chat a bit."

Trish sighed out in relief and mouthed _thank you_. Although the three girls were immeasurably close, Ally and Trish had known each other longer and were closer simply because they had had more time to develop their friendship. There were still slight nuances about one another that Kira hadn't yet figured out in the four years she had known them, and Trish's perfectionism was one of them. It was a subject that Trish didn't enjoy talking about, because it made her feel as though being a perfectionist was a _problem_ , and that she needed professional help, so Ally often humoured her and would cut into conversations to relieve Trish of the pressure and keep her friend calm. There was no doubt in Ally's mind that Kira had noticed it, but she was a sweet person and would never push Trish out of her comfort zone unless her comfort zone was becoming unhealthy.

"You know, he's pretty cute," Trish said randomly. "How do you know you _won't_ fall for him?"

Ally simply shrugged and gave her friend a cheeky smile.

"I never said I wouldn't."

* * *

Admittedly, Ally was surprised to find that her first _real_ 'high school' party was nothing like the ones she saw on TV.

There were no couples making out in the middle of the dance floor, no alcohol, no mishaps or vases breaking, no fist fights, no nudity, but perhaps most surprisingly of all – there were none of the fabled plastic red cups. She was slightly disappointed that the large, red cups were not present, since she always saw people drinking out of them in movies and was eager to do so herself, but the music was pleasant, and amicable chatting filled Cassidy's home. She was more than happy that the party was _tame_. She didn't think she would be able to handle the wild parties she had seen on the television.

All around her, people were dressed in various shades of pink and red, with a few white or black skirts and jackets to accompany the look. Ally, herself, was in a red dress that hugged her figure and stopped _just_ above her knees, with her hair out in natural waves, and minimal make up on. Kira had called her look 'classy'. Trish had called it 'boring'. Cassidy had specified _Valentine's colours_ on the invitation, since it was, after all, a Valentine's Day party. She was holding it on the thirteenth of February, as opposed to the fourteenth, since most couples would want to spend their Valentine's Day together – _alone_. Ally also realised that this had been strategically planned, so that her party would fall on a Saturday night as opposed to a Sunday night, and therefore more people would want to come.

Trish and Kira had encouraged her to go and 'mix', and had abandoned her almost immediately after they had arrived, they had diverged to mingle. Kira and Elliot were the picture-perfect couple, standing near each other but not obnoxiously flaunting their relationship. Occasionally, Ally would see Elliot whisper something in Kira's ear, and she would giggle, her eyes darting in the direction of whatever it was he was no doubt mocking. Trish, on the other hand, was happily dancing on the dance floor, constantly flitting and swapping partners. It looked like fun, and a small part of Ally wanted to join her on the dance floor, but she was clumsy and awkward and not very good at dancing.

Eventually, Trish had noticed Ally standing awkwardly by herself on the side. The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes, and pulled Ally onto the dance floor. The clumsy brunette tripped over herself and smiled sheepishly before she accepted Trish's hands and began to dance with her. Thankfully, Trish made sure that Ally didn't get a chance to do any of her embarrassing dance moves, by holding her firmly by the hands and dancing about with her. Ally was surprised to find that she was actually having fun.

"Oh my god, so you two _are_ dating?"

A loud, obnoxious voice interrupted Ally's fun, and she released Trish's hands so that she could turn and look at her tormentor. Of course, of _course_ , Tilly Thompson would be _here_ – she wasn't sure why she hadn't thought that she would be, considering that Cassidy was on the cheerleading squad. With a sigh, Ally ran a hand through her chocolate locks and raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Not that it would really be of interest if we _were_ ," Ally replied tiredly, "but we aren't."

Tilly sniggered. "Is Little Miss Perfect _gay_?" She taunted, although it didn't annoy Ally. Why would it offend her if she _was_? Even though she wasn't, Ally didn't find it insulting. Most girls were magical and majestic. If she _was_ gay, she would certainly have an easier time finding a girlfriend than finding a boyfriend.

"Considering I was dating Gavin not long ago, if I _was_ dating Trish, that would make me bisexual," Ally said, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

The blonde rolled her eyes, and gave Ally a condescending look. "Are you really discussing the _extent_ of your gayness with me? What? Are you seriously so obsessed with me that you're trying to turn me gay too?"

Her logic was so twisted that Ally's nose scrunched up in confusion. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to formulate a response to the ridiculous statement, doing an excellent impression of a fish. Luckily for her, Trish stepped in smoothly, with a logic just as convoluted as Tilly's and the fire in her eyes twice as fierce.

"You know, they say that when someone tugs on a girl's pigtails in the playground, it means they like her," the Latina said, cocking her head and looking curiously at Tilly. "Could it be that you're metaphorically tugging on Ally's pigtails?"

Around her, a few people went _oooh damn_ , and Tilly gaped at Trish. It was now _her_ turn to do an excellent impression of a fish.

"You can't _possibly_ be trying to suggest that I'm hitting on your _girlfriend_! That's so not classy – I would never hit on someone who's taken."

Trish shrugged. "She's not my girlfriend, she's my best friend. And the way you're treating her isn't classy, it's ass-y."

"You're not _sassy_ ," Tilly snipped back, and Trish rolled her eyes.

"And you're just trashy. Child," she began patronisingly, patting the taller girl condescendingly on the head. "You can't keep up with the big girls. Put the claws away, kitty, before you get eaten alive by a lioness."

"Oh? And I suppose you're the _big bad lioness_?" She challenged, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner," Trish drawled.

Ally took this opportunity to slip away. Conflict had always frightened her, and Trish knew that – so when the dark-haired girl caught her best friend sneaking off, she didn't question it. Ally knew that Trish would continue to stall Tilly until she was in a safe area. Fighting always reminded her of how her parents were, just before they agreed to get a divorce, and confrontations just weren't her thing.

Somehow, Ally found herself in the kitchen again, pouring herself a drink of water awkwardly and looking for a corner to hide in, at least until Trish was done 'sassing' it out with Tilly. However, apparently she was doing a good job at looking lonely, because it wasn't long before Cassidy – the hostess of the party herself – joined her in the kitchen with an easy smile as she poured herself a glass of lemonade.

"Sorry about Tilly," the strawberry blonde apologised. There was not a single thing about her that seemed awkward – she seemed to ooze with confidence, and Ally wished that _she_ was that confident. "She's been pretty bratty ever since Austin made it – y'know – _public_."

"She's been pretty bratty since kindergarten," Ally muttered under her breath, and unfortunately, Cassidy heard her.

 _Fortunately_ , though, Cassidy seemed to find it incredibly amusing, and she patted Ally cheerfully on the back.

"Woah! Who knew the bookworm had _claws_?"

Immediately, Ally felt a warm rush of affection towards the strawberry blonde, who had clearly sensed her awkwardness and discomfort and had come to rescue her. Cassidy just seemed so _cool_ , and Ally was very eager to befriend her.

It wasn't long before the pair were surrounded by all sorts of people from the party, who were all equally eager to chat with the hostess. Ally told her lame jokes and felt radiant as people laughed – people _liked_ her! They were all eager to become friends with Ally, and several people tried to converse with her alone. A lot of girls told her that her dress was gorgeous, and that it was the perfect outfit for someone of her body type, and a lot of the guys grinned and told her that she was cool. Cassidy eventually exited from the crowd filled with people who were all eager to befriend Ally – they had _always_ tried to befriend the shy songwriter, but she had never glanced up from her maths textbook long enough to actually make friends, and now that she was displaying social behaviour, the other students in her class were eager to enjoy it while it lasted. Tilly had been politely asked to leave after disrupting the party.

By the time that Cassidy had turned up the volume of the music and coaxed the majority of the crowd out of the kitchen and onto the makeshift dancefloor once more, Ally was tired. Kira and Elliot had left a while ago, since he had work in the morning and her dad had given her a curfew, but Trish was Ally's ride home and hadn't yet left.

Ally wasn't in the mood for dancing, so she ambled about aimlessly around Cassidy's house, smiling at the family portraits and other mementos that adorned the house. She finally settled down on the side of the makeshift dancefloor, which was really just the centre of Cassidy's family room with all the furniture pushed to the edges of the room. Ally tried to find Trish somewhere, but she saw her friend dancing and decided not to join her. She sat down on a random free chair, which happened to be between Dez and Jace. She didn't know either boy very well, so she just smiled politely and sat down between them. Each of them smiled warmly at her, before they returned their gazes back to the dance floor. The number of people at this party was somewhere around fifty, and although Ally had heard that Cassidy had thrown much bigger parties before, fifty-something people certainly seemed like an awful lot to her. She hadn't yet spoken to every person at the party, but if Jace and Dez were here, it was likely that Austin was hanging around somewhere. She curiously looked at the dance floor, attempting to spot the mop of blonde hair, but she didn't see him anywhere. Perhaps he wasn't here, after all.

"Hey, Ally," Dez greeted, his voice in a quiet tone. She quirked an eyebrow, but then realised that his girlfriend had her head on his shoulder and was fast asleep. Ally felt her heart warm at the simple yet adorable gesture of Dez staying put instead of dancing so that his girlfriend could sleep, especially since she had seen him watching the dance floor as though he wanted to join them.

"Hi, Dez," she said with a smile.

Beside her, Jace stood up and crossed the room. Ally followed him with her eyes curiously, and then spotted him making a beeline to Trish, where she danced in a large circle of people. She watched with interest as the brunet squeezed himself into the circle beside Trish.

"He totally likes her," Dez said, gaining Ally's attention again, and he nodded towards Jace and Trish.

"Oh, I know," Ally grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "She totally likes him too."

The red head rolled his eyes. "Pity that two people with as much chemistry as they have can't see it," he said, smiling easily. He stroked his girlfriend's hair affectionately, and she seemed to further curl into him in her sleep. "Maybe he's just shy. It took me a whole year to ask Carrie out."

"Aw, that's cute!" she said, her face lighting up eagerly. One-on-one conversations, she could handle. Having the whole crowd of people all eager to befriend her had been a tad overwhelming, but the conversation with Dez was easy and relaxed, and she was still technically upholding Trish's plan by making friends.

"She _is_ cute," he sighed happily, before looking back at Ally and smiling. "So, how are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess," she said. She never really knew how to answer that question. Was she supposed to give a detailed analysis of her emotions?

"You look tired," he commented, tilting his head to the side.

"I am," she sighed, looking quite doleful. "I was sort of mobbed in the kitchen."

"Ah, been swamped with all those people who wanna be your friend, huh? They're pretty eager, although I guess a lot of people have been wanting to be friends with you for a while. You're like one of those turtles that only emerge from their shell at night." He said, grinning.

The brunette giggled and shook her head. Dez was a little strange, but he was also a very sweet person – several times in music class, he had offered to try and make everybody close their eyes while she performed, since she was visibly nervous. Each time, she would roll her eyes and tell him that that wouldn't work, and she had eventually performed anyway, but he was a sweet person who just seemed to want to put everyone at ease.

"I had no idea socialising was so hard!" Ally complained, pouting a bit. "I don't understand how Kira does it. Or why people like Tilly actually _enjoy_ the spotlight." She shook her head.

Dez chuckled. "Interesting how you've barely ever initiated a conversation with anyone in our grade for the past few years, but you suddenly start talking to everybody a few months before we graduate," he said lightly, although when his eyes met hers, she was taken aback by the calculating look there. He was still smiling, and he seemed genuine, but it seemed that there was more to him than what met the eye.

Ally suddenly got the feeling that Dez was a lot more inquisitive than she had previously thought.

"Uh, yeah, I mean, I guess I just figured – well, we're graduating soon, so I may as well befriend _some_ of them. Y'know? Like, I can look back on my high school days and talk about more memories than just ones with Trish and Kira, I guess. I mean, I don't know."

Dez looked at her curiously, but dropped the subject before changing it completely. "You're friends with Austin, right? He's mentioned you a few times. You seem close."

Her nose scrunched up in confusion. "Really? I mean, I guess we're sort of friends? We've never really discussed it, but I'd consider him as one. I don't think he'd really consider me, one, though. Are you sure he's talking about me?"

"Unless there's another 'Ally from music class', then I'm pretty sure it's you," Dez responded dryly with a raised eyebrow.

Ally looked embarrassed. "Ah, yes. Then that would be me," she said, smiling awkwardly.

"Everything he says is complimentary, I assure you," Dez said, chuckling slightly at her expression. "In fact –" Dez broke off, and then glanced up. "Ah, speak of the devil. Hello, Austin."

Somehow, the blond managed to still have that distinct smell of maple syrup and aftershave, despite the smell of sweat and fruit juice that lingered in the room.

"Oh! Hi, Austin," Ally greeted politely, turning and smiling up at him. "I didn't know you were here."

"I didn't know you were here either," Austin responded, looking confused as he sat down beside her. He grinned. "Has Dez here been bothering you?" He teased, glancing at his friend before turning back to Ally.

"I haven't!" Dez said defensively.

"Don't creep people out," Austin mocked, making a face at his friend over Ally's head.

"I don't!" Dez whined, although both boys were grinning and Ally could tell that neither were actually annoyed.

"Go dance or something. Carrie said earlier that she wanted one last dance before we left, didn't she?" Austin said.

"She's sleeping," Dez said, gesturing pointedly to the blonde on his shoulder.

He and Dez then proceeded to have some sort of silent conversation, and Ally swore that she saw Austin's eyes flicker towards her briefly before they met Dez's again. She had no idea what they were silently discussing, but she felt as though it went something like this:

 _Bro._

 _Broooo._

 _Brooooooooo._

 _Fine. You win this time, Austin._

And with that, Dez gently shook Carrie awake and then led her onto the dance floor.

"So, Ally," Austin began eagerly. "Where have you been all night?"

She spread her hands wide and leaned in close with the air of someone telling a scandalous secret. "I was in the kitchen."

Austin chuckled. "Ah. I was outside. Did you know that Cassidy has a _killer_ tennis court?"

"Really?" Ally asked, her eyes wide. She didn't often play sport – too much coordination was required for that, and she had a tendency to fall over her own feet – but she enjoyed to watch tennis, badminton, golf… Her father told her that those were all boring sports, but Ally found them interesting.

"Yeah. I was versing Gavin out there. I won; mopped the floor with him," he boasted, waggling his eyebrows at Ally.

"The only thing that boy can win is a competition in being nice," she responded dryly. She thought back to the days where she dated him, and smiled slightly. "He's a very nice person. Just a little bit _too_ nice. He lets everybody walk all over him. I honestly don't know how he became the quarterback."

Once more, the blond chuckled, and let his eyes roam over the dance floor before snapping back to look at Ally. "Care to join me for a dance?" He asked, raising an eyebrow nervously.

"Um… Sure, why not?" Ally grinned.

His entire face lit up, and he stood up quickly. "Awesome!" He exclaimed.

Ally felt herself drawn in by his enthusiasm, and smiled as she slowly stood as well. She then gave him a warning look, standing still and holding a hand up. "Just a heads up – I have two left feet and I'm horrible at dancing. The last time I went dancing I accidentally knocked over about _fifty_ people at the same time."

For a moment, it seemed as though there were no words to respond to that. Austin's jaw opened and closed, before he settled for an incredulous look. " _How_?" He finally managed to get out.

"Um," Ally said, giggling nervously. "I had no idea there was a conga line behind me?"

He chuckled, and shook his head, before his eyes met hers warmly. He smiled and looked at her as though she were something precious – someone _special_ – before he shook his head and the moment was over far too soon. "That is definitely the sort of skill you should put on a résumé," he teased, and then he spread his hands wide as though imagining a billboard. "Ally Dawson – can knock over fifty people."

"Shut up," Ally groaned, swatting his arm and hiding her face. She was smiling, though, and she was admittedly having a lot of fun just – well – just _being_ with Austin, being in a situation with him that wasn't during school or when she was working. It was nice to relax and talk with him – he had this _ability_ to make anybody and everybody relaxed with just a smile or a flip of those lovely blond locks that Ally suddenly had the desire to run her hands through, but she restrained because she felt as though that would be a little bit weird. "It just – it was like a _domino_ effect, okay? You should feel honoured that I graced your peasant life with my exhilarating story. Trish and Kira are the only ones who know I did that." She didn't mention that Gavin knew too, since this little scene had happened while she was on a date with him, but she figured that since she wouldn't have told him if he wasn't there, it didn't count as him 'knowing' she did that

Austin chuckled, and mimed zipping up his lips. "Consider my peasant life grateful, that you have ever-so-kindly graced it with your presence," he said dryly, before he gestured to the dance floor and brightened. "So, dancing? Or are you going to knock me over and cause another domino effect?"

Ally raised an eyebrow, surprised that he still wanted to dance with her even after she warned him how terrible she was at it. With a small, shy smile, she grabbed his hand and nodded. He seemed momentarily surprised that she had grabbed his hand, and she was about to pull it away, thinking that she had committed some sort of social faux pas, before he laced his fingers through hers and smiled warmly at her.

"You look fantastic, by the way," he said awkwardly, as though he wasn't sure if he was allowed to compliment her, and Ally's cheeks turned the colour of her dress.

"Thanks," she replied, looking at the ground shyly. She head him chuckle and shake his head, and he tugged at her hand.

"Oh, there you are, Ally!" Trish exclaimed, elbowing her way through the crowd. She looked at Austin and Ally's interlocked hands with a raised eyebrow, before shaking her head and looking back at the brunette. "We have to go _now_."

"What? Really? _Now_? Seriously?"

Trish turned and looked at Austin. He had blurted out the words before Ally could even register what Trish had said, and now both girls were staring at him as though he had grown a second head. The boy flushed and dropped Ally's hand, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I mean, can't you guys stay for just one more dance?" He asked.

The Latina shook her head, although this time she had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry, my mum just called and she's pissed. Apparently Ally and I have a curfew." She turned to Ally and rolled her eyes. "Your dad is pissed, too. He said that he assumed we would leave when Kira did."

Ally looked disappointed, and then bit her lip with an awkward smile. "Sorry, Austin," she said, picking her purse up from the chair. "Maybe some other time?"

The blond looked between her and the dance floor, and then at Trish, before he sighed. "Yeah. I still owe you that slice of pizza, remember?"

She smiled and nodded. "So you owe me a slice of pizza, and I owe you a dance."

Austin grinned. "Sounds like a –"

Trish cut in before he could finish his sentence. "Look, I'm really sorry to be caught in the middle of this _whirlwind_ of flirting, but alas, my mother is a very scary woman when she's angry. Ally, we have to _go_."

"Bye, Austin!" Ally squealed as Trish pulled her away, and she saw the smile drop from his face as he waved back dejectedly.

"Bye, Ally," he called out, seeming rather disappointed.

His words seemed to prompt a chorus, however, because a lot of people stopped dancing and turned to wave goodbye to her.

"Bye, Ally!" They all chorused. "Bye, Trish!"

"Bye!" Trish and Ally chorused back, before Trish finally pushed Ally out the front door. They made their way quickly to Trish's car, and it wasn't until they were completely settled in there that a teasing grin cracked onto the Latina's face.

"So… Everything seems to be going according to plan," she said.

Ally shrugged. "Yeah. I'm surprised so many people actually liked me," she admitted.

Trish's eyes softened, although she kept them on the road. "Of course they were going to like you, Ally. You've just never felt comfortable enough to leave your bubble. But I'm really happy that you did, because tonight you seemed like you had a lot of fun."

Ally smiled and looked at her hands. "I did have a lot of fun."

"A _lot_ of fun," Trish said, raising an eyebrow. "Did you and Austin dance?"

"No, we were about to," she replied, looking confused.

"So that part of the plan is already in action? The bit where you get Austin and Tilly cries because he likes you more than he ever liked her?"

Ally rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. We're just friends, he was just being friendly."

"Friends who hold hands," Trish muttered.

"What about you and Jace?" Ally said, pointing an accusing finger in Trish's direction.

Trish blushed and shrugged. "Okay, okay, you win, you win."

The two girls laughed. Ally's dad had said that she could sleep over at Trish's house. It was nice to spend time, just with Trish – it wasn't that she didn't like Kira, but it was nice to have time with _only_ Trish. They laughed happily into the night, exchanging stories about Jace and Austin and teasing each other to no ends. By the time Trish fell asleep, Ally just stared out the window at the big bright moon. It was a crescent moon tonight, and the glowing shape reminded her of a warm smile and the smell of pancakes.

Austin _Moon_ , she thought, smiling to herself at her own lame little joke as she finally fell asleep with that look he had given her playing over and over in her head. As though she were someone precious – someone special to _him_.

* * *

 **A/N: Ahhhh! I hope you liked it! I'm trying not to have this develop too quickly because it seems a little unrealistic when they're suddenly** _ **in love**_ **, so I really hope these little encounters and whatnot are enough! Yaaaaaaaay.**

 **Thank you everyone who reviews, and thank you so much for all your kind words about my writing :D**

 **Reviews:**

Rauslly: I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out ;)

Adorkablerauraxauslly: Aw! I'm glad you're READING another one of my stories :D

Dont-Stop-Believin: Why, hello there again! It's so nice to see you reading another one of my fics – and I can't tell you when the plan will happen, because #spoilers

Lookin' For Treble: I JUST WANTED TO MAKE IT EXPLICIT THAT HE LIKES HER A LOT DON'T JUDGE ME I DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN MYSELF TO YOU ((ily))

Mia: Awww! Oh my goodness, I think YOU'RE the one who seems like an awesome person. (But being Australian DOES make me pretty cool.) Keep reading ;)

Axswiftxa13: I don't know if this counts as a spoiler, but I don't really like writing angst much so neither of our protagonists are going to REALLY go through any 'heartbreak', at least not with what I have planned so far ;) (And yes, I LIVE on fanfiction. Some of the fics on this site are so good! I love it when they get the characters just so PEREFECTLY ahHhHH). Aw thanks, it really means a lot that I'm characterising them correctly and whatnot :D

Luckystarz910: HI MEG! Tropes are kind of like stereotypes – they're like, common things that happen in stories and movies – for example the 'fake dating' trope in romance :) HAHA and yes, Ally will get with Austin for real. _Eventually_.

xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx: AW you called me 'mum' with a u! That's what AUSTRALIANS use :D Thank you and I'm so glad you like it so far omg :*

ROTBTDreader: Oh my gosh, you're so sweet. Thank you so much! Your review really made me smile a lot. I think YOU'RE Ah-Maz-ing ;) And pffft, I'm blushing. How do I agree that I'm talented without seeming egotistical? ;)

Chubby Bunny: YOU'RE BACK! You're an absolute cutie, really. I'm always so happy to see you reviewing. And I think Austin is adorable, so yes, I really like how he smiles too :D


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally and I'm in no way affiliated with Disney or its associates.**

 **Word Count: 5 506**

 **A/N: This is personally one of my favourite chapters, so I hope you like it too ;) I promise that Trish doesn't cockblock in this chapter again :D**

* * *

Miss Suzy was writing something on the whiteboard, and Austin was only half-paying attention. The other half of his mind was watching Dez attempt to make an origami frog, and the other half was spying on Ally Dawson, who was sitting in her usual spot, all the way at the front of the room.

Wait. Did he just split his attention into _three_ halves? That was too many halves.

Austin shrugged. He could have three halves of a mind. In fact, he decided that he now had a fourth half, which was the half of his mind thinking about how many halves it was possible to have. He supposed that if he had four halves, it was really just two wholes. Or perhaps he should call each half a quarter and stop pondering it. Perhaps he could drop the half that was thinking about halves, and then stop paying attention to either Dez or the teacher, and then he would have two halves again. Or, he could just focus his sole attention on Ally, with the way she pursed her lips together, tapping her pen against her chin, until she hurried to scribble down something important that Miss Suzy was saying. The thought crossed his mind that he should be paying attention to Miss Suzy, but he couldn't help it if Ally was looking _adorable_ , especially with her hair pulled up in a messy bun and her sweater practically _swimming_ on her, as though she hadn't been bothered with putting effort into her appearance that day.

He had it bad. He knew he did. He had always known Ally was a very pretty girl, but the dress she had worn on Saturday night – well, he wasn't sure he had been able to stop thinking about how good she had looked. He felt awful, like some sort of pervert or hormone-riddled teenager who kissed a poster of his favourite celebrity each night, but he couldn't help it! Ally Dawson was _exquisite_ , and now that he had seen the way that dress had hugged her every curve, his teenaged mind couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to place his large hands on her tiny waist, to get that dance he had almost gotten on Saturday night before she had had to leave. He wondered what it would have been like to pull her petite body into his broad chest, to bury his nose in her hair and to slowly rub her back, his hands stilling in the small of her back. He thought about that _damn_ dress, that lovely red dress that made him have so many indecent thoughts about the innocent girl that he was staring at, with the way the length had been modest and almost to her knees, but the fabric had been tight around her torso and showed off her perfectly flat stomach – and _shit,_ he thought, her ass was _fine –_ although he hated the fact that he was having such perverse thoughts about her. He blamed the dress. He wondered what it would have felt like to pull that dress _off_ of her, to ravish every centimetre of her body and trail his lips over her flat stomach and –

He was drooling again. _Dammit_.

"Are there any questions about the assignment?" Miss Suzy asked, and Austin chose that moment to start paying attention again.

There was an awkward silence, where nobody seemed to want to ask anything since it was clear that only a few people had been paying attention and actually had any idea what was going on. Austin tried to play it cool, and acted like he knew what she was talking about, but he didn't. The teacher smiled before shrugging.

"Alright then, class. Would you like to choose your partners, or should I pair you up randomly?"

Before anybody in the class could answer, Dez, jumped up from his chair, and nodded enthusiastically. "Pull names from The Hat!" He cried, jumping up and down eagerly.

" _Dude_ ," Austin groaned, looking up at his friend before averting his eyes, as though that would make people think he didn't know him. It wouldn't work, of course, considering they were the only two who sat in the back, and everybody knew that Dez and Austin had been inseparable since kindergarten.

"Pulling names from The Hat it is," Miss Suzy said, nodding decisively. "Dez, dear, remind me to give you a gold star for enthusiasm after class, okay?"

Dez's eyes lit up, and he nodded. "Yes, ma'am!"

Austin was just glad that nobody in his music class were jerks. In a few of their other classes, a couple of the kids – namely _Trent_ , the asshole who couldn't stand the fact that Austin was captain of the basketball team and he wasn't – had bullied Dez before, thinking that he was weird and unusual. Music class was an escape, though, and only the nicest people seemed to take it.

Miss Suzy pulled The Hat out of the drawer. The Hat was something she had made at the beginning of the year – it was simply a plastic hat covered in sparkles, with each of their names on a separate piece of paper, laminated. She had a hat for each of her classes, and she often used The Hat when sorting out who would work with who in a group project. It was the easiest way to ensure that it was completely random, and it was always fun to pull names out of a hat. It was like a big reveal of some sort.

She passed the hat around, and each person pulled out two names before announcing who was paired together. Austin actually had to pay attention this time, instead of admiring the way Ally's lips moved when she spoke. He wondered what her lips would have looked like in the light of the dance floor, whether she would have swayed with him and giggled with those lips puckered out in the most enticing way possible. He was still admittedly upset that he had never gotten that dance.

"Dez and Sun Hee," Ally said, before she looked up with a smile.

Dez sighed and waved at Sun Hee, before looking at Austin sadly. "Bummer," he said. "I was hoping I'd get paired with you."

"Then why did you ask her to choose names out of The Hat?" Austin asked, looking confused. "I mean, she gave us the option to choose our own pairs."

Dez shrugged, before he nudged Austin and pointed to where Miles was reading out the next two names. He was very quiet, so they couldn't hear him.

"Lee-an-aus," the boy whispered, parts of his sentence inaudible.

"Miles, dear, we're going to need you to speak up. We can't hear a word you're saying," Miss Suzy said, shaking her head sadly at him.

He cleared his throat before repeating himself, but still, nobody could hear it. Miss Suzy sighed, and took the two laminated pieces from him before reading it out loud herself.

"Ally and Austin," she said, before she passed the hat along and put the names in her pocket with the rest of the names that had already been pulled out.

The brunette that Austin had been fantasising about the entire lesson turned and gave him a timid wave, and he smirked back, feeling exceedingly smug. He hadn't been paying attention when Miss Suzy had announced what the partner assignment was, but he was sure as hell looking forward to working with Ally.

Perhaps he would get his dance after all.

* * *

Thursday afternoon – Austin's favourite. He, Dez, and Jace, were all tearing into a pizza, and this time it really _was_ just the three of them. Carrie had asked at lunchtime if she could come along, but Dez had looked at Austin with a secretive grin, before saying something about how his pet goanna needed babysitting. Apparently, Carrie loved to take care of lizards, and had agreed to babysit Dez's goanna for the afternoon.

It was nice to hang out with Dez and Jace alone, and to catch up. It was a bonus that for once, Jace wasn't constantly texting Trish – apparently Ally had confiscated her phone during class, having decided that texting was not going to help her grades. Austin had tried not to laugh when Jace informed him what had happened, but he just imagined the short brunette sternly wagging a finger at her best friend as she confiscated her phone, and the mental image had made him smile.

He had a feeling that once Jace and Trish _finally_ admitted their feelings for each other, they wouldn't be constantly texting. It had been the same with Dez – his friend had constantly messaged Carrie, trying to win her over with humour, but once they officially started dating he hadn't been trying to impress her as often and had gone back to normal. Of course, Austin didn't get to spend as much time with Dez anymore, since he did spend a lot of time with Carrie, but he didn't mind – he and his friends had always made sure they had enough time for each other.

"I got a job," Jace said casually, picking up a slice of pizza and inspecting it curiously before shrugging and eating it. "At Sonic Boom."

Austin raised an eyebrow. "Sonic Boom? Why are you working there?"

He shrugged. "Trish said –"

Dez interrupted his friend with a chuckle. " _Trish_ said, huh? Well, no wonder you're there."

Jace rolled his eyes before continuing. "Trish said that Ally was getting swamped with how many hours she was working, so she asked if I'd be willing to work part-time. That way Ally gets less hours, and Mr Dawson doesn't have to pay much more for another employee. Apparently I'm getting, like, half of Ally's shifts, so therefore half her pay."

"Is that… legal…?" Austin asked curiously, his nose scrunching.

Jace shrugged. "Who cares? I'm getting paid and Trish is there, like, all the time."

"Whipped," Dez muttered under his breath, and then held his hands up in surrender when Jace glared at him.

At that moment, Dez's phone went off, and he ignored it. It went off two more times, and still he ignored it. Austin had noticed that it had gone off several times earlier, and he had ignored it then, too.

"Dude, aren't you gonna check your phone?" He asked, curiosity getting the better of him. "You've been getting texts for basically the whole entire time that we've been here."

Dez groaned. "It's Sun Hee. She's very insistent that we get this assignment done as soon as possible. She wants to start it _tonight_! Isn't that insane? We literally got the assignment _today_."

"Sucked in," Austin snickered.

"And you got _Allyson Dawson_ ," Dez wailed dramatically. "Not only is she the _smartest_ person in _all_ of my classes, she's also coming _first_ in _music_. Which is the subject we have the assignment _for_. And she hasn't been messaging you. _Non-stop._ "

Austin muttered something about wishing Ally had been messaging him non-stop, but luckily, neither Jace nor Dez seemed to hear. There was an awkward silence, where Jace inspected his pizza lazily again, and began to pick out all the olives, and Dez's phone continued to go off while he sighed and face-palmed the table.

"So, uh… What _was_ the assignment about, anyway?" Austin asked, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "I kind of wasn't paying attention in class."

Dez rolled his eyes. "It's on the hand-out Miss Suzy gave us, dumbass."

"Oh."

Another awkward silence.

"So, hypothetically, if I already _lost_ the sheet with _out_ reading it, would you tell me what our assignment is?"

Dez gave him a look. "I guess."

Austin smiled sheepishly. "Okay, so what if I told you _now_ that it's _not_ hypothetical, and I really _did_ lose that sheet?"

"Then I would tell you that Ally might seem like a nice girl but she is capable of tearing you to shreds if you are the reason she gets a bad mark."

"Oh."

He was ready for another awkward silence, but Jace had other plans. He glanced at his watch, before looking up sheepishly. "Hey, you know how I said I have a job?"

Both Dez and Austin nodded.

"Well. Here's the fun part. I'm ditching you guys. Because my shift starts in about twenty minutes. Sorry." He grinned sheepishly and waved, before standing up and getting ready to leave.

"It takes, like, five minutes to walk to Sonic Boom from here!" Austin exclaimed, pouting at his friend.

Jace shrugged. "Ally has to teach me how to work the counter and whatnot before I can relieve her of her shift."

Wait… That meant… If Austin's calculations were correct, that meant that a certain brown-haired beauty would be free in approximately twenty minutes. Unless she had plans with Trish – but he had a feeling that she was going to use this time to study. Their music assignment counted as homework, didn't it?

"Then you better get going, you wouldn't want to be late," Austin declared, shooing Jace away.

"Gee, thanks, I'll miss you too," Jace muttered sarcastically under his breath, and Austin flashed him an angelic smile.

Once the brunet was gone, Dez turned to Austin. He inspected his friend curiously, leaning forward until their noses almost bumped – feeling intimidated, Austin leaned back and put some distance between them.

" _What_?" Austin asked, looking scared.

"Are you mad at Jace or something?"

Austin was taken aback. "Am I – am I _mad_? At _Jace_? No! Why would you think that?"

Dez shrugged. "I dunno. You were very excited to make him leave. If you're not mad at him, then I only have one other conclusion."

The blond scoffed. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You have a crush on Ally."

"What – psh – _no_ ," Austin said lamely. "I – _no_ – what – _golly gosh_ , Dez, you sure do have a vivid imagination – _psh_ – _me_ have a cru—as if! _On Ally_ , pft, no, shucks Dez, naw."

As Austin continued to splutter and attempt to get out of it, Dez simply watched him with an amused expression. His friend slurped loudly at his strawberry milkshake, evidently waiting for Austin to finish stuttering and spluttering. He looked rather smug as the blond failed to keep his cool, as though he were excited that for once in their friendship it was _Austin_ who was blubbering like a fool and _Dez_ who was calm and collected.

"Are you done?" Dez asked wryly, and Austin glared at him.

"Fine, you caught me. I've liked her ever since we worked on that project on 1920s jazz like… two years ago."

Dez chuckled. "Totally called it."

" _What_?"

He shrugged. "You're not very subtle about it. Besides, I'm _the love whisperer_. I'm very knowledgeable in the _love_ department." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "But she's up to something. I don't know what, but she and Trish are planning something. She was very friendly on Saturday."

"She's always friendly!" Austin defended her meekly, to which Dez shrugged.

"It's probably nothing. I don't know, it just seems a little bit suspicious. But Ally is a nice girl, really, I think she's great. If I was a girl, I'd want to be her."

Austin gave Dez a weird look, but he was used to the weird and unusual things his buddy said. They had been through a lot together, and he knew that his red-haired friend was a lot smarter then he let people believe. He was just a free spirit – someone fun-loving and a bit goofy, and although he lacked common sense at times, he was absolutely _brimming_ with empathy and intuition. It was refreshing, really, to have a friend who knew what he needed but gave him what he wanted – even though Dez often knew what Austin needed was a good slap in the face, he would humour his friend and talk about weird and unusual things like his new pet hamster, or his favourite kind of beef jerky. Dez was the sort of friend that should be protected at all costs, which was exactly what Austin did.

"She's very pretty," Austin mumbled eventually, his ears burning with embarrassment.

Dez grinned. "I'm always a slut for waxing poetic. Continue, I know you want to."

Austin sighed. "It's just – _damn_. She's got this – like, I don't know. She just – she, like, _quirks_ her eyebrow and always looks halfway between amused and exasperated and it's just – I don't know! She's so _adorable_ but somehow she's also – I feel like a freaking _pervert_ for saying this – but she's freaking _sexy_. And _adorable_. And I just – I don't know."

"Ah, young love," Dez said, patting Austin comfortingly on the back, and pretending to wipe away a fake tear. "She's a very nice girl," he said happily. "And she laughs at my jokes, so we know she has a sense of humour."

The blond had to bite his tongue to avoid saying something mean and scathing about the fact that she was more likely laughing at Dez rather than his joke.

"She's so _sweet_ ," Austin sighed. "Dude, honestly, you have no idea how good it feels to finally tell someone. She's driving me _insane_."

"Well, make your move, dumbass," Dez said bluntly. "You've got this assignment with her. Use it to spend more time with her. Plant a kiss on her – badabing, badaboom, you have a hot new girlfriend who happens to be incredibly sweet _and_ smart, and then you can come on double dates with me and _my_ hot girlfriend who happens to be incredibly sweet _and_ talented. Then, we just get Jace to ask Trish out and we can go on _triple_ dates. Wouldn't that be cool?" He looked so hopeful, like some sort of puppy waiting to get a treat after doing a trick correctly.

Austin chuckled. "Yeah. That _would_ be cool."

"Not to mention that Ally would probably _improve_ your grades. Just being around her, soaking up her smartness. Your parents would finally get off your ass about improving your grades."

"Yeah! Or she could _tutor_ me. Wouldn't that be cool? A hot girl tutor. I wouldn't say no to that."

Dez rolled his eyes. "Romance in its finest form," he said dryly. " _Anyway_ , I was _going_ to say that I think you should go for it. Chances are, she'll like you back. If I was into guys, I'd be into you."

They high-fived, having had a similar conversation long ago. They had eventually come to the mutual agreement that if either of them were into guys, they'd probably be into each other.

His friend opened his mouth to say something more – no doubt, it was something about how cute a couple _Austin and Ally_ would make, but Austin spotted the very cutie of their conversation walking through the food court with her schoolbag slung over one shoulder and her binder clutched in her arms. She looked thoughtful, as though she were mentally going through some sort of list. She paused in the middle of the food court, before she pulled out her phone and her fingers began to tap against the screen. After a few more moments, she put her phone back in her pocket, and then continued walking. Austin's phone went off.

"Dude, be cool," Dez hissed, shoving Austin and nodding towards Ally.

"Ally!" Austin exclaimed, waving her over in excitement.

"Way to play it cool," Dez muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Ally walked over to them with a smile, waving awkwardly. "Hey guys," she said, clutching her binder closer to her chest.

Dez gave Austin a little nudge, and Austin glared at him, before he turned back to Ally and flipped his hair out of his face.

"Sup?" He said, smirking a little.

She seemed immune to his charms, and she rocked back and forth on her heels awkwardly, the rose-coloured tips of her fingernails digging into the surface of her binder as though she were nervous. "Um. I don't know. The ceiling?"

 _Freaking adorable_ , Austin thought, before he smiled at her and gestured to the box of pizza between himself and Dez. "Are you busy? I still owe you that slice of pizza, remember?"

She glanced at her watch and then bit her lip. "Well, I mean, no, I'm not busy, like, _right now_ , and technically I've finished all my homework that's due tomorrow but it's never too early to get started on assignments and – _um_ , speaking of assignments, I kind of just sent you a text asking if you were free right now. To work on it, I mean. Like. Are you? Free? Like, are you free?" She eventually got her question out, and then awkwardly smiled at him.

Austin glanced at Dez before nodding with a small smirk. "Um, yeah. That's why I offered for you to join us."

Ally looked at Dez and gave him an apologetic smile before nodding towards Austin. "Do you mind if I steal him away?"

Dez looked at Austin with a raised eyebrow, and Austin gave a small nod, unseen by Ally. He really, _really_ liked the idea of being stolen away by Ally.

"Be my guest! Steal him away."

She turned to Austin and smiled sheepishly. "Do _you_ mind if I steal you away?" She asked him, biting her lip nervously.

"I most certainly do not mind at all," Austin said, attempting to sound cool. Apparently, he ended up sounding like a dork, because Dez sniggered and Ally bit her lip as though trying not to laugh. It was almost as though she found him endearing.

"Then, uh, can we start on our music assignment? Like… Now? Do you mind?" She asked, still biting her lip.

He wished _he_ was biting that lip.

"Sure!" Austin said, perhaps a little too eagerly, because yet again, Dez sniggered. "But, uh, first – do you – _um_ – do you want any pizza?"

Ally nodded sheepishly, an embarrassed smile flickering over her face. "I haven't had lunch yet," she confessed, setting her folder down on the table and pulling a chair up to join them. "I had Calligraphy Club at lunchtime and Chuck had this new kind of parchment and refused to let anybody eat near it, and then I had Biology and we're not allowed to eat in the lab, and _then_ I had to go to work, and you're not allowed to eat in the store! And – okay, I'm rambling, but yes, I would love to have some pizza." She smiled sheepishly again.

Dez chuckled, and pushed the pizza box towards her, before exchanging a look with Austin.

"Well," Dez said, sparing Austin a quick smirk. "I'm going to see if my girlfriend has gotten sick of my lizard yet."

Ally's eyes shot up to meet his, looking alarmed. " _Excuse_ me?" She asked, coughing on the bite she had just taken.

"My lizard," Dez repeated, looking confused, before a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Oh! _Oh_. No, no, I meant, like, an actual _real_ lizard. Not like – that wasn't a euphemism for my penis!" He exclaimed loudly, earning himself several glares from old ladies. "My girlfriend is taking care of my lizard right now. As in, she's with my lizard. My pet lizard. Like, she wanted to take care of my lizard. As in a goanna! His name is Greg. Not a penis! _Lizard_."

Austin sniggered. "Dude, there's _gotta_ be a better way to phrase that."

Ally looked embarrassed, and smiled shyly at Dez. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"So, uh… I'm gonna go…" He trailed off awkwardly, and the redhead waved goodbye before picking up his stuff and leaving.

The pair ate in silence for a little while. Ally was clearly ravenous, because although she took a long time to get through one slice, there wasn't a moment that she didn't have food in her mouth. Austin took this opportunity to sneakily watch her, pretending to be absorbed in his own slice, while his eyes were actually trained on her. She had this bit of tomato sauce on the corner of her mouth, and Austin's fingers itched to reach out and wipe it away, but she seemed to notice it and flicked out her tongue to lick it away quickly before taking another bite. Of course, the tomato sauce smeared _again_.

"So," Austin said, partly to distract himself from the urge to cross social boundaries and wipe the sauce off the corner of her lip – no doubt, it would just smear once more. "On a scale of one to I-will-skin-you-alive, how angry would you be if I said I had no idea what this assignment is about?"

Ally paused, and held up her hand, motioning for him to wait a moment while she finished chewing her mouthful. "I'm not going to skin you alive," she said, looking amused. She wiped her mouth and fingers with the napkin, before opening her binder and flipping through the colour coded sections until she reached the 'Music' section of her folder. She took out the hole-punched sheet, and then handed it to him. "Everything we need to know is on that sheet," she told him, before she picked her slice of pizza up again.

He skimmed the sheet of paper, eyes flickering back and forth as he read the instructions. Although it was a simple assignment, it was also a difficult assignment. They were to choose an era – for example, romantic, classical, neoclassicism – and write a three thousand word analysis and essay on it, accompanied by a two-minute song written in the style of that era. The written component and sheet music were to be handed in via a portfolio, and they were to give in either a live recording or a computerised recording on a CD. Austin nodded thoughtfully, before he looked up at Ally.

"I'm really hoping you already have an era in mind, because I don't think I can write in the style of any of these," he said, sadly motioning to the list of eras they were allowed to choose from.

Ally rolled her eyes with a smile, and then shrugged. "My only request is that we don't do the classical era. It's too common – all the people who suck at music are gonna choose it," she said bluntly. "I kinda like the Baroque era. It might be fun to compose something in that style."

"Baroque era? That was like, Bach and Vivaldi, right?" Austin asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded in confirmation.

"Hm… Yeah, that could be cool. We could compose the majority of it on the piano, and then just arrange the different sections for different instruments," he mused, tapping his chin.

"Or we could just compose the separate parts on separate instruments," Ally said dryly.

Austin held his hands up in surrender. "Just thought it might be easier to work it out on the piano first. Get out the main melody, and then split the melody up amongst trumpets and violins. Maybe even throw in a lute, for a chordal instrument?" He suggested.

The brunette's eyes lit up, as though she were suddenly realising that Austin _was_ going to take this homework seriously. The last time they had worked together had been in a group of four, and he had pleaded with the group that he do the least amount, since the basketball semi-finals were coming up and he had to train. She hadn't seemed to mind, but he wondered curiously now if she just assumed he didn't take any of his work seriously. Ally looked excited to be paired with someone who seemed to have an equally good understanding of music as she did. Everybody knew that Ally was coming first in music, but for some reason, nobody seemed to know that Austin was coming second. He certainly bragged about it as often as he could – but when people thought of _Austin Moon_ , they seemed to associate him with Dez's unusual short films, and the basketball team.

"I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this," Ally declared, her eyes bright and her smile broadening to the point where he could see almost all her teeth, with her nose scrunched up and her eyes wide with excitement. He wanted to touch her nose, to give it a little _boop_ , but he felt as though that would be beyond the generally accepted boundaries of social conduct, and so he refrained.

"Oh?" Austin said, raising an eyebrow and leaning forward. "I think so, too," he agreed.

Ally mirrored him and leaned in close, her smile stretching even further, if that was possible. "Yeah?"

"We're definitely going to have a lot of fun," Austin whispered. He could smell her breath mingling with his, and she either didn't notice or didn't mind their close proximity – he hoped it was the latter. He could smell the pizza on her breath, and whilst it wasn't exactly _pleasant_ , just the fact that he could smell her breath mingling with his own was enough to drive him _crazy_ , and he wondered if she was feeling the butterflies that he was, moved for a little while, content to just search each other's face with their eyes, as though looking for some sort of _answer_ to a question they didn't know.

"A lot of fun?" Ally repeated eventually, an eyebrow raised and a coy smile tugging at her lips.

" _A lot_ of fun," Austin confirmed. "We may even have to pull a few all-nighters to get this done."

When her eyes went wide and a rosy hue coloured her cheeks, Austin leaned back with a smirk, satisfied that he had brought that expression to her face. Ally coughed into her hand, as though trying to regain her composure. She leaned back as well, and gave him a shy little smile, her teeth tugging on her lip nervously.

Again, the thought flashed through Austin's mind that he wished _he_ was the one tugging on that lip.

"My dad owns Sonic Boom," she squeaked. Austin could see that her cheeks were still slightly pink. "And he doesn't mind when Trish and I stay in the practice room even after we've closed. So, I mean, if you're parents are cool with it we could probably work on it in there. There's all those instruments and stuff..." She trailed off awkwardly.

"Shall we go there right now?" Austin suggested, tipping his head to the side. His parents weren't expecting him to come home for a few hours, since he, Dez, and Jace, normally spent their Thursday afternoons together. He felt slightly guilty for the thought that he was enjoying spending his Thursday afternoon with Ally instead of with his friends.

Ally made a face and shook her head. "Not right now," she said, before motioning to her uniform, with the cute little _Sonic Boom_ logo printed on it. "I'm sick of that place. Besides, if I go back there, then Jace is just going to annoy me with more questions about the cash register. Let's go to the library, and work on the research?"

"The _library_?" Austin asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

The brunette gave him a strange look. "Uh… Yeah… That's generally where people go to study…"

"Right. Yes. The library." He stood up, gathering the garbage and shouldering his backpack. He motioned that Ally move first, and she stood as well. He quickly threw the empty pizza box and other garbage into the bin, and then began to walk in the direction that he sincerely hoped the library was in.

Ally followed him for a little while, an amused smile on her face as though she knew something that he didn't. After a little while, Austin gave up on pretending to know where the library was. He turned to her, and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I, uh…"

"Don't know where the library is?" Ally finished for him, tapping her fingers against her binder. She attempted to look unimpressed, but Austin could see her cheek twitching and knew that she was suppressing a smile.

"That might not have been what I was going to say!" Austin whined defensively.

A perfectly plucked eyebrow inched its way up Ally's forehead, and she succeeded this time in her attempts to look unimpressed. "Then what _were_ you going to say?"

He cleared his throat and mumbled something. She continued to stare at him, before he held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, fine, yeah, it was about the library thing, okay?"

Ally giggled, a smile lighting up her face, and then tilted her head in the opposite direction. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? It's this way," she said, and turned on her heel to lead the way. Austin followed her, like the love-stricken puppy he was, perfectly content to let her lead the way to the library.

The fact that her hips swayed slightly as she walked, with those tight jeans she wore drawing Austin's attention to the general butt area, was only an added bonus that he was all too pleased to notice.

* * *

 **A/N: auz10 m00n u perv BUT ANYWAY SORRY FOR THE WAIT I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED IT AND THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO REVIEWED! THE EFFORT EACH OF YOU TAKE TO REVIEW MEANS SO MUCH TO ME.**

cornyshor: Oh you sweet talker, you :*

adorableness: Dez doesn't know about the plan, but (as mentioned in this chapter) he knows that SOMETHING is up ;) But don't worry, Austin will get his dance eventually ;) ;) ;)

Dont-Stop-Believin: Oooooh buddy you're in for a whirlwind of adorable

Lookin' For Treble: I'M LAUGHING SO HARD BECAUSE "CAH-YOOT". Thank you darling, I think you're very cah-yoot, and I promise that Trish doesn't cockblock in the future (i think...)

Unreal Zebra: Haha, aw, thank you lovely. I'm really glad you're enjoying it! (And thank you for reviewing on my sister's story, as well. She was so excited!)

Aznmissy04: Oh honey you know I love you. Thank you so much for reading this one too!

Adorkablerauraxauslly: Aw! You're reading this one too :D And thank you dear, I feel special. I hope the Auslly moments in this was enough to make up for Trish cockblocking ;)

Guest2: I FEEL VERY REASSURED NOW because I was kinda worried that I was making things move too fast, especially with how much Austin already likes her? Thank you for that, and thank you for reviewing!

Chubby bunny: Tbh I adore you. And yes, I do have several other fics underway ;)

xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx: nice name cassie BUT HAHAHA Yes that bit was my fav too omg

ScorpioSmile: OH MY GOODNESS YOUR REVIEW WAS SO LONG AND I LOVED EVERY WORD OF IT. It just got AMAZINGER with each word ;) But thank you so much hon, I'm really glad you're enjoying it and I'm really glad that it's meeting your expectations.

ROTBTDreader: Pfft, look at you, feeding my ego. This is a dangerous game you play! But thank you lovely, I feel very special.

axswiftxa13: You're so cute omg. Thanks for reviewing! And I promise that Trish doesn't interrupt them again. I think. Maybe. Who know. hahahaa


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: don't own A &A nor am I affiliated with Disney/disney's associates etc**

 **Word Count: 5070**

 **A/N: Yay! Another chapter! We're officially halfway through the fic :o Also, just for the record, all the maths in this chapter is correct according to my textbook, and any maths that Ally does without a calculator is generally written the way that I, personally, work things out when I don't have a calculator on hand. So yeah, she might make a few mistakes, but that's because I'm too lazy to actually get a calculator and check if my mental maths is correct. (Ironic, huh?) So yes, apologies in advance if there's any mistakes with calculations, but I assure you that the techniques are all correct.**

 **Apologies for how late this is – I just started uni and haven't quite mastered the art of time management yet.**

* * *

"Wait, what's eighteen times four? Uh, eight times four is thirty-two… carry the three, plus one times four is four plus three is seven... Seventy-two? Seventy-two. Thanks, Trish!" Ally nodded as she scribbled down the number in her maths book.

"You're welcome," Trish drawled lazily, inspecting her fingers nails. Her legs kicked back and forth from where she sat on the counter, and Ally stood beside her at the cash register, attempting to finish all of her maths homework before Jace came in to relieve her on her shift.

"Okay, so now if y equals seventy-two… substitute it into equation three… And that means that x equals eight times seventy-two… plus nine… which is… Dammit, what is it Trish?"

The Latina shrugged. "Why don't you just use your calculator?" She suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"Because my calculator is in my backpack which is all the way upstairs," Ally whined, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Okay, okay, no. Eight times seventy-two is… What is it, Trish? Um… Eight times two is sixteen, carry the one, eight times seven is fifty-six, plus one is fifty-seven, so that's… five hundred and seventy six? Yeah, five hundred and seventy-six. Plus nine, so that's, uh, plus four to make it five hundred and eighty… And plus five, so… five hundred and eighty-five? Five hundred and eighty-five! Ah, yes. Thanks, Trish!"

"You're welcome," Trish repeated, despite the fact that both times Ally had done all of the maths on her own. Her friend had gotten into a weird habit of asking for help, doing the task herself, and then thanking the person she asked for help from in the first place. She had long ago learned to just accept Ally's unusual habit. She had also learned how to tune out whenever Ally started to do maths out loud instead of in her head.

After a few more moments of Ally rattling off random numbers as she did her algebra homework, Trish jumped off the counter and headed up to the practice room, before she came back a few moments later and soundlessly handed Ally her calculator. With a sheepish grin, the brunette took it and continued to do her homework, at a much more rapid pace now that she didn't have to do all the maths in her head. She was trying to get it done now, so that she and Trish could hang out when her shift ended, but her friend didn't seem to care about getting it done. Ally, however, always cared about her work, even though doing the homework wouldn't actually count towards her grade.

Just as she finished another question, the bell tinkled, indicating a customer, and Ally looked up. A familiar head of blond strolled into the store, and he waved at her. She waved back with a small smile, before turning back to her homework, humming quietly as she moved onto the next problem.

The smell of maple syrup and aftershave washed over her, and Ally glanced up, only to be met with Austin Moon's blinding grin. He put his hands on the counter and cocked his head at her. She met his curious gaze with her own – whilst he did come in frequently to look at and admire all the instruments, he normally only waved a 'hello' and a 'goodbye' to her, and she wasn't entirely sure why he was coming up to her now.

"Hey, Ally," he said. "Hey, Trish."

"Hey," Trish responded monotonously, before looking back down at her nails and continuing to inspect them, clearly disinterested in the blond before them.

Ally gave him a puzzled smile and laughed slightly. "Hey, Austin," she responded awkwardly. "Just browsing again?"

He shrugged. "Not this time. I actually broke my drumsticks – well, Dez broke them – and I need new ones," he explained.

"Oh, they're over there," she said, pointing in the direction of drumsticks and other mallets. "Gee," she added, raising an eyebrow with a coy smile, "you'd think you'd at least know where the drumsticks are, considering how often you come in here."

"Maybe I just wanted to pop over and say 'hello' to the cutie behind the counter," he teased.

Ally felt her cheeks go warm, and she shrugged shyly, making an awkward _stop it_ gesture at him, attempting to stop the giggle that threatened to erupt at any moment. He smirked and turned to go look at the drumsticks, and Ally let out a small sigh, leaning back and watching him for a moment before she ducked her head and looked back at her maths. Her cheeks were still burning and she wanted to glance up again to look at him, but she kept her head down.

Beside her, Trish sniggered and jumped off of the counter. She leaned against it, her arms folded, and raised an eyebrow at Ally. When it became apparent that her friend wasn't going to say anything, the brunette scrunched her nose up in annoyance.

" _What_?"

"You work fast," Trish commented lightly, nodding towards Austin.

His tongue peeked out between his lips, and his brows furrowed in concentration as he inspected the drumsticks and read the packet. To Ally, there were no _real_ differences between the various brands, but she figured that he was looking for a set that wouldn't break as easily and wouldn't grow slippery in his palms after playing for hours. He looked adorable as he ran a hand through his hair and inspected the next packet, even holding them both up side-by-side as though to compare them.

"What do you mean?" Ally asked innocently.

"He's already smitten."

Ally's jaw dropped, and she swatted Trish, sparing a quick glance at Austin to make sure he hadn't walked over and heard her by any chance. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw him still squinting at the various packs of drumsticks on the other side of the store.

"Is not!"

Trish shrugged and gave her a smug look. "I give you – at the _most_ – one month before you're dating."

"Oh, shh. We're not going to date," she whisper-hissed. "I mean, it – it would just be _weird_ , and – and I'm not really sure I'd want all those girls _death-glaring_ me and – and you know that I'm leaving for New York if the scholarship goes through so – so a relationship isn't something I can afford to have right now and I—"

"Uh," Trish cut her off with an amused smile. "I meant 'dating'. Y'know – for the plan?"

Ally broke off with a blush, her eyes widening as she realised what she had just been rambling about, and cleared her throat. "Oh. Right."

Luckily – or perhaps _un_ luckily – she was rescued from having to explain herself and her ramble by the very topic of their conversation sauntering back up to the counter with a pair of drumsticks in his hands. Trish rolled her eyes and muttered something about 'disgusting, incessant flirting', before she wandered up to the practice room. Austin reached the counter just as Trish got up the stairs, but didn't seem to mind or care as he set down the drumsticks and grinned at her.

"There are so many different brands," he exclaimed, eyes wide with excitement. "It was hard to decide which one was best, so I went with these ones because they have the most _swag_ ," he explained.

Ally stifled a giggle. He was so strange. "Is that all?" She asked politely.

"Yup, that's all," he said, taking his wallet out of his back pocket and digging through it, his tongue peeking out between his lips again. Ally couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if that tongue was peeking between _her_ lips.

She flushed, and accepted the cash from him almost too quickly. "Here," she squeaked, her cheeks pinking even more, and instead averted her thoughts to think about why his wallet chain wasn't connected to his wallet. What was the point in having that dangling out of his pocket when his wallet wasn't even connected to it?

"Thanks," he said, taking the bag from her. He pursed his lips and leaned back from the counter, looking as though he wanted to say something, before he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um… Do you wanna maybe – actually, never mind. Uh, bye." He gave a little wave.

"What?" Ally asked, looking confused. "Um… Okay. Bye then. See you at school, I guess?"

"Or maybe we could meet up later and work on the assignment again?"

"Um, sure, just text me when you're free," she said, giving him a small smile.

Austin grinned and nodded, before awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it again and cleared his throat, before motioning awkwardly to the door. Ally nodded with another smile and then looked back down at her maths once more, her pencil flying across the page as she meticulously wrote out each step of mathematical induction.

 _Step 3: Prove the statement true for n = k + 1_

"Woah," Austin exclaimed suddenly, and Ally let out a shriek. She hadn't realised that he was still standing there. "You actually look like you know what you're doing!"

Ally raised an eyebrow at him and let out an amused chuckle. "Uh… Possibly because I _do_ know what I'm doing?" She suggested with a coy smile, resting her elbows on the counter and her cheek into her palm.

The blond flushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly again. She could have sworn his eyes flickered to her lips for a moment, but the moment was over too soon for her to be sure. "Oh, I guess that would make sense. I kinda forgot that you're, like, pretty much top of all your classes."

"I –" she broke off, looking embarrassed, and cleared her throat. "It's mainly because all I really do is study," she said.

"I study," he said quickly, defensively. "I study really hard. I even do it by myself so that I can't be distracted."

Ally looked surprised for a moment, but then noticed the way his jaw was tensed, and realised this must be a sensitive topic. She hesitantly rested both arms on the counter, straightening her back, and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Actually, I've read a few articles about studying for introverts as opposed to extroverts," Ally mused thoughtfully. She gave him a sly grin. "And almost all of them say that it's hard for extroverts to study alone. Maybe you just need a study buddy."

"What makes you think I'm an extrovert?" He challenged, his eyes lighting up with amusement.

"Uh…" She trailed off and pursed her lips. She _had_ just assumed that he was one, considering he always seemed surrounded by people and always seemed so – so _energised_ – but it was true that she didn't know him well enough to make that kind of judgement. "I don't know. Are you?"

He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "I dunno. I've never really thought about it, but I guess I would be. An extrovert is someone who feels really, like, awake and happy and stuff when they're with people, right? And being alone, kinda, like, drains them? And an introvert is the opposite. Right?"

Ally nodded. "Yeah. So maybe you just need a study buddy," she suggested again, poking him in the chest.

Before she could withdraw her hand, Austin grabbed her wrist and leaned forward with a smirk clear on his face. "Are you offering?"

Her eyes zeroed in on where his hand was clasped around her wrist. His hand was bigger than her small wrist – his fingers wrapped around her slim wrist with ease, and the size of his hand was easily half the size of her forearm. It suddenly occurred to her that if she _was_ offering herself as a study buddy, she would get to spend a lot more time with that beaming grin, those eyes that seemed to light up when she spoke to him… She definitely enjoyed hanging out with Austin, and it would be good revision if she _did_ help him… Ally cleared her throat and bit her lip, nodding shyly.

"I'm not sure if I _can_ help, but if you would let me, I'd like to try…"

Austin's eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. "Honestly, I'll take any help I can get. _Especially_ from the smartest girl I know."

Her cheeks fired up in a pinkish red mess as she flushed in embarrassment, ducking her head down as though to say _aw, shucks_. Her wrist was still in Austin's grasp and a small part of her wanted to twist her hand around in his grip so that her fingers laced with his, but the sane part of her stopped herself from doing do, and instead she leaned forward to give him a serious stare.

"I'm a really mean tutor, just so you know."

Austin shrugged. "I'm a really horrible student."

"I'm stubborn."

"I'm lazy," he countered easily.

"I'm awful and will constantly chase you up to make sure you're doing your work," she added, furrowing her brows as she tried to discern whether or not he really wanted this.

"I'm undisciplined and probably need a good kick in the butt, anyway, so that actually sounds pretty good," he said sheepishly.

"I don't let you use your phone when we're working."

"Why would I need to use a phone when the only person I'd want to be texting is right there with me?"

That comment threw Ally off balance. Once again, she felt a hot blush creeping up her neck and was positive that she was doing an _excellent_ impersonation of a fish out of water. She felt mildly flattered, and a sense of pride and embarrassment was slowly spreading through her veins as she blinked rapidly and processed his surprisingly sweet words. One glance at his eyes showed her how sincere he was being, and it only made her heart hurt even more.

"Then, yes," she said quietly, eyes slowly flickering up to meet his. "I'm offering to be your tutor."

Austin leaned back, finally releasing her wrist, and looked incredibly smug. "When do we start?" He asked simply, looking far, _far_ too pleased.

"Um – whenever," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "Tell me when you're free and I'll let you know if I am too."

"Awesome. I'll text you later, 'kay?" He said, grabbing the drumsticks off the counter and turning around, his hands shoved casually in his pockets. "Bye, Ally!"

"O-Okay! Bye?" Ally called back, her eyes wide. What had she just agreed to?

Before she could further ponder whether or not she would be able to handle spending so much time with Austin without _actually_ falling for those sparkling eyes, those surprisingly sweet comments, that unique smell of maple syrup and aftershave that smelled _so good_ , Trish interrupted her with a small chuckle.

"Damn, girl, you work fast," the Latina commented, leaning against the counter with her arms folded across her chest.

"T-Trish!" Ally exclaimed, clutching at her chest. "Wh-when did you get back down here? You scared the crap out of me," she complained.

Her friend shrugged. "'Why would I need to use a phone when the only person I'd want to be texting is right there with me?'" She quoted, smirking at her friend. "Smooth words for a boy who's supposedly not smitten."

"He's just - he's just being sweet," Ally countered, her cheeks tinting pink. "Besides," she added, pointing at her accusingly, " _you're_ the one who told me to 'seduce Austin Moon'."

Trish had the decency to look sheepish, before she shrugged. "Seems to me that he's the one seducing _you_ ," she joked.

Ally remembered the way his tongue peeked out between his lips, the way his hands were so _large_ and could probably easily span across her stomach – and, oh goodness, now she was wondering what it would feel like if those calloused fingers were spread across her skin, gently stroking it and rubbing soothing circles into and – and the way his chest was so _broad_ , it was impossible _not_ to stare at it, and the way his wallet chain dangled and drew her attention to his _very_ nice backside and –

Her cheeks grew a distinct shade of red, which only made Trish smirk in victory.

* * *

"You know what? Maybe I don't _need_ to do well in school. Maybe I can just become a handsome bachelor who skates through life off his good looks and charisma."

Ally rolled her eyes and swatted Austin with her exercise book. They were sitting on his bed – well, Ally was sitting. He was splayed across it like a star, an arm thrown dramatically over his eyes and his legs hanging off the edge. Ally was sitting cross-legged beside his torso, staring down at him as he tried to process the information they were studying. Since she wasn't an 'official' tutor, she figured that they could relax like friends and that she didn't have to maintain a professional air about her.

"Come on, Austin. You were the one who said you wanted me to help you study."

"And I'm seriously regretting that right now," he groaned, peeking out from under his arm before he gave her a sly smile. "The studying bit, not the wanting you bit."

A blush rose to Ally's cheeks, and she poked his cheek with the end of her pen. "Flattering _me_ won't help you get better grades," she pointed out.

Once more, Austin groaned, and this time flipped onto his stomach. "I give up."

"Austin Moon! It's been _thirty minutes_ ," she scolded, giving his shoulder a hard shove. "It hasn't even been a full hour!"

"But my brain is full," he whined, refusing to budge.

" _Austin_ ," Ally tried again, shoving his shoulder once more. She liked the way his muscle twitched beneath her hands as he tensed his muscles in an effort to remain a solid, unmoving lump.

" _Ally_ ," he mocked, though the mocking tone was somewhat lost to the muffling of the pillow.

The brunette sighed and looked around his room, as though searching for patience. "How about we have a short bre—"

His head shot up. "A break?"

She stifled a giggled. "Don't get too excited, Austin. It's only a short one. Like, maybe, five, ten minutes?"

Austin sat up, his eyes bright. "That's fine!" He said enthusiastically, before he slammed his textbook shut with even more vigour. "Woo! That felt good. Seriously." He leaned back and put his hands behind his head, staring up at his ceiling with a dopey smile on his face and his eyes closed.

Ally awkwardly fiddled with the clip on her binder, before she looked to him with a raised eyebrow. "Well. Are you just going to lie there?"

The blond shrugged without opening his eyes. "Got a better idea?"

"Um… We could play a game," she suggested.

He raised an eyebrow, seemingly intrigued as he finally opened his eyes. "What kinda game?"

Ally paused for a moment. She hadn't considered what they could play, and she glanced around his room as though seeking inspiration. "I don't know. I mean, we've been fri- um – well – sorta friend-acquaintance things – for a while now but I don't think we've ever really _talked_."

A smug grin slipped onto Austin's face immediately, and Ally had a mild inkling that he was about to prove her wrong.

"You're saying you wanna play a get-to-know-you game, Dawson?" He asked, shuffling over a bit and patting the spot on the bed beside him.

"Are you saying you don't think we need one?" She challenged, hesitantly lying on her side beside him.

The smug look on his face seemed to intensify. Ally got the feeling that he knew her better than she thought, especially as he rolled onto his side and propped his face up on his elbow. It was as though he was emanating smugness.

"No, by all means. Let's play one."

Ally pursed her lips thoughtfully for a moment, before she grinned sheepishly. "Do you know any good ones? I don't – I don't generally… like, I mean, I guess I've never really played any get-to-know-you games because I've never really had the opportunity – well, that's a bit of a lie – I mean, I've had the opportunity – but I've never really – well – _gotten to know_ someone before and it's really –"

"You talk a lot," Austin cut her off, looking thoughtful.

"I do not!" She exclaimed, her jaw dropping as she whacked him playfully with the back of her hand.

"Woah, easy there, chatterbox," he laughed, wobbling slightly as his balance was thrown off. "How about this – you wanna get to know each other better, right?"

"Well, I don't like the idea of lying in the bed of some guy I barely know," she said dryly.

Austin smirked, his eyes flitting over her before they flickered back to hers with a surprisingly fond expression. "And I don't like the idea of a girl I barely know lying in my bed," he teased.

Her cheeks turned pink and she looked away in embarrassment, playing with the edge of his quilt. "Well? Got any good games?"

"We could play 20 Questions," he suggested, rolling onto his back again and folding his hands across his chest. "But – we could make it interesting."

"Uh… How?" She asked nervously, sitting up and staring down at him, her cheeks suddenly hot.

She must have had a funny expression on her face, because Austin chuckled slightly and shook his head. "Nothing provocative, I promise," he laughed, and whatever expression she was making seemed to worsen because he laughed even harder. "I'm serious, Ally! I promise. I'll keep it G-rated."

"Good," she grumbled, poking his cheek half-heartedly.

He turned his face and smiled at her. "How about we ask each other questions about things we already know about each other? Like… to confirm, maybe? Or to just find out more about it. And then we can also see how much we know about each other, already."

Ally considered it for a moment, before she nodded with a small smile. "You go first."

Austin nodded and sat up, tapping his chin thoughtfully, before he grinned at her. "Your favourite food is pickles. That's really weird. Why?"

"You – how do you know that?" She asked, brows furrowing.

"Hey, it's _my_ turn to ask questions, _Ally_ ," he said, sticking his tongue out at her childishly.

"But I – fine!" She pouted, before she looked thoughtful. "I mean, I don't know. I like the tang. And they're crunchy, so it's something to munch on when you're thinking. It gives you the satisfaction of chewing on a pen but also eating. And, when I was really little, my parents took me to this pickle factory – Dad had a family coupon that let us in for free or something. It was really cool! Pickles are cool." She nodded assertively.

Austin shook his head with a slight chuckle, looking incredibly amused. "Alright, chatterbox. Your turn."

"I am not a chatterbox!" She exclaimed indignantly. "I talk a normal amount! I mean, who's to say _your_ normal isn't just abnormally quiet and really _I'm_ talking a normal amount and it's _you_ who doesn't talk much and – and –" she broke off with a frown. "Okay, I see your point."

Austin looked beyond amused at this point. He had a hand over his mouth in an attempt to stifle his snickers, and he gestured with the other hand for her to keep talking. Ally blushed.

"You're mean," she grumbled, before her eyes lit up, and she turned to him. "Your favourite food is pancakes! Right?"

"…That's your question?" He asked, looking unimpressed.

"No! I mean, well, yes, but it was gonna be the same as yours. Like, why are pancakes your favourite?"

"I think the better question is 'why aren't pancakes a national treasure?'" He stated seriously.

Ally rolled her eyes. "No, seriously! C'mon, I gave _you_ a real answer."

"It's a dumb question."

"You thought of it!"

He gave her a look, as though to say 'exactly', with an unimpressed raise of his eyebrow and an impish sparkle in his eye. His smile hitched up on one side in a crooked kind of smirk that made Ally's eyes trace his lips and wonder what it would feel like if that crooked smile was pressed to hers. To prevent her mind from following a dangerous path – because it would be _stupid_ of her to start thinking of Austin that way, especially with Trish's plan and with her own life plan of getting a scholarship to MUNY and moving to New York and –

"Well? Are you gonna ask me a better question?" He asked, settling back down onto his bed with his gaze on the ceiling and his hands behind his head.

"What are you plans for college?" She blurted out, because she had been thinking about university and it was the first thing that had come into mind.

For a moment, she thought she had struck some kind of sensitive topic, because he didn't reply instantly. He closed his eyes, his lips puckered out in thought, before his eyelids fluttered slowly and he gave her an uncharacteristically shy smile.

"You have to promise not to laugh," he said to her, wagging a finger at her sternly. "It's – it's kind of dumb."

Ally nodded and petted his head in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "I won't laugh."

Austin furrowed his brow. "Did you just – did you just _pet_ me?"

It was Ally's turn to look embarrassed, and she ducked her head away. "I don't know! I just – I guess I thought it was comforting or something."

She felt the bed shift under his weight as he sat up, and continued to stare down at her lap, her cheeks very warm with embarrassment. At that moment, Austin's hand was suddenly on her head, petting it in a similar fashion, and she peeked up as best as she could with his large hand resting on top of her head, only to be greeted with his amused grin.

"What? I'm comforting you," he teased, and she rolled her eyes before shoving her hand off his head with an undignified grunt.

"C'mon, you're avoiding the question," she pressed, trying her best to sound grumpy – but she couldn't stop the smile that had spread onto her face at his adorableness.

"Okay, okay!" He sighed, holding his hands up in surrender. "I – I'm trying to get into this – well – you've probably heard of it, um – Music University of New York? Well, it's just – I know it sounds really dumb and you're probably going to go off and do something really smart like law at Harvard or something and you're probably like 'Austin, you know so much about music already', and yeah, it's true, I'm really awesome, but I just can't – I just can't imagine studying something that's not music and – and – and you have a really weird expression on your face. Why are you looking at me like that?"

Ally's jaw had dropped the moment he mentioned MUNY, her thoughts whirling and only processing some off the things he was saying. Austin wanted to go there, too?

"No – it's just – I want to go there, too," Ally managed to get out.

Immediately, Austin's expression broke into a face-splitting grin, his eyes alight. "Wait – you want to go to MUNY?"

Ally nodded enthusiastically, her hair tumbling over her shoulders with the vigorous movement. "Yeah!"

His face lit up like a Christmas tree. "No way! What do you wanna study there?"

"Composition and sound production! You?!"

"Performance and composition!" He gave her another bashful smile and shrugged. "I kinda wanna be a popstar."

"A _pop_ star?" Ally asked, her eyebrows shooting up with amusement.

Austin immediately look embarrassed. "No! No, not a _pop_ star! A – a _rock_ star, I mean! I'm – it's – it's manlier!"

" _Manlier_?"

Austin glared at her. "Rockstars are manly!"

"Yeah, alright, _popstar_ ," she giggled again, her giggles only intensifying as his cheeks turned a dangerous shade of red.

"Q-quit it, Ally! It's not funny!"

"I think it's pretty funny," she guffawed.

"Is not! Don't call me that!"

She held her hands up in surrender, still giggling. "Alright, I won't call you popstar."

"…Thanks," he said, squinting at her suspiciously.

"No problem," she said, finally ceasing her giggles and heaving a deep breath, before she turned to him with a mischievous glint in her eye, " _rockstar._ "

"…I guess it's better than popstar," he muttered.

Once again, this set Ally into a fit of giggles at his sullen expression. She keeled over, falling face-first into his soft blankets, clutching her stomach. She could hear him chuckling, but it was hard to tell over the sound of her raucous laughter. A few seconds later, she finally stopped giggling, sighing heavily into his blankets, and rested there for a moment, before she sat up slowly, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling. Austin blinked, looking seemingly surprised at her frazzled appearance, before his eyes softened and the corners of his lips flickered into the smallest of smiles.

"You done yet?" He quipped, quirking an eyebrow at her.

Ally took in a big gulp of air, before nodding and giving him a thumbs-up. The blond chuckled again and chucked a pillow at her half-heartedly, before he cleared his throat and bit his lip.

"Wanna keep playing?" He asked.

"But your break is over," she pointed out, tapping his watch.

Austin groaned, tipping forward and letting his face fall against her shoulder. "But I don't wanna study anymore."

Ally wet her lips nervously, and hesitantly brought a hand up to pet his hair. "Thirty more minutes, rockstar, and we can take another break."

"…Only if that break involves froyo," he bargained, lifting his face so that only his chin rested against her shoulder, peering up at her with wide doe eyes.

How did he expect her to say 'no' when he looked at her like that?

"Fine. You got yourself a deal. But only if I think you've done enough work to warrant a break!" She added, before he could get too excited. "And I mean if _I_ think you've done enough, not if _you_ think you've done enough."

"Yeah, yeah, alright," he said, waving a hand dismissively and reaching for his textbook to open it up. "Deal. C'mon, talk derivatives to me."

* * *

 **A/N: Ah! Again, I'm SO sorry for the wait. I'll try to be quicker, but like I said – I'm really bad at time management. Thank you for bearing with me – and I love reading all your quirky lil reviews, with the love for Auslly and obviously your love for this story too!**

 **Replies to you lovely reviewers:**

Axswiftxa13: EVERY CHAPTER I WRITE I CRINGE A LITTLE MORE BECAUSE HOW DOES ALLY NOT NOTICE HOW OBVIOUS AUSTIN'S CRUSH IS? And ahh, thank you! You're so sweet :D It's hard to believe someone could like my writing so much but I'm so glad that you do!

Lookin' For Treble: HE'S JUST A PERVY LIL TEENAGER HE'S TRYING TO REIGN IN HIS HORMONES TRY TO UNDERSTAND HIS DILEMMA

Dont-Stop-Believin: Ah, but don't we ALL love pervy Austin? ;) Dez knows what's up, yo.

Guest2: AHAHAHAH SOMEBODY LIKED MY HALVES RANT! Thank you, I personally loved that bit and was hoping someone would point it out xD I hope this update was good :D

African King: OK YOU GOTTA COME OFF ANON SO I CAN LOVE YOU UP. My biggest worry was that this whole story would be too trashy and cliché but ahhh, thank you so much! :D

ScorpioSmile: Oh my goodness, your reviews seriously make me smile so much. YOU'RE SO NICE TO ME :D I'm glad you like Austin gushing over Ally, because this whole fic is pretty much Austin gushing over Ally ;) And no, I don't think she realises how flirty she's being – Austin just brings out this coy side of her that she doesn't know exists! Ah, my dear, all your questions will be answered in the next chapter, don't worry! Hehehe, this chapter was all playful flirting so I'm guessing you like it ;) MAKE SURE YOU SLEEP EARLY AND DO WELL IN SCHOOL, OKAY? Love you! And thank you again :D

Sweetlovegirl101: Aww! I love reading people's favourite parts (because that also helps me know what kind of content you guys like reading most!) and also because it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm glad you're enjoying it, and I hope you continue to do so!

Unreal Zebra: Aw! Glad I got a few laughs outta you ;)

Chubby bunny: YOU'RE BACK! HELLO! Austin's got it soooo bad. The lizard part was one of my personal favourite parts of the chapter, honestly, it just seemed something very Dez-like. And ack! I know! The A&A finale had us all in tears. I'm really trying my best not to rush their relationship but ayy I'm flattered! You're one of my favourite reviewers (not that I have favourites ;) ) And woot, I finally updated! :D

xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx: YOU'RE CUTE TOO CASSIE

DisneyLover135: I hope this chapter was worth the wait! :D


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello…. It's me…. Anyway, hi guys! Sorry for the longass wait. I ran out of muse, and then I forgot about this, and then I remembered, and then I didn't have time. Hopefully the next chapter will be up within the next couple of weeks (lol but who knows with me) and I hope this mediocre chapter is somewhat fulfilling.**

 **Special thanks to Solange for being a sweet, supportive, and encouraging bean, and to Maddie for helping me get over my writer's block.**

 **Word Count: 6 387**

* * *

It was getting increasingly clearer to Austin that he was, by all means of the expression, _whipped_.

Ally had asked him to meet her at nine in the morning on Saturday to work on their assignment. When he got to the library, she was grumbling and clutching a cup of coffee despite the fact that it was her idea to get up early and work on the project. She had groaned and griped and snapped at him multiple times before apologising immediately, looking crestfallen when she realised she'd been unjustly rude to him. When Austin pointed out easily that it was _her_ who had wanted to meet at nine, she had groaned and fallen face-first into the textbook, grumbling about how she hated that he was right and that she should _really_ stop making plans in the morning when she knew she wasn't a morning person.

Austin had sat by uncomfortably and patted her back awkwardly, but even with her grumbling and moaning about how gross early mornings were, he still found himself drawn to her. He found himself wondering what it would be like to wake up to that grumpy pout, whether it would begrudgingly turn into a smile if he woke her up with a trail of kisses along her bare shoulder, or if she would grumble and kick him out of bed, only to apologise immediately. Then he would get up and pin her to the bed and declare that he's going to need some convincing of how sorry she is before he could forgive her and –

"Austin? _Austin_ ," Ally said, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Wha-?" He said, blinking rapidly and looking at her.

"I asked if you were hungry," she said, tipping her head to the side. She checked her watch. "It's almost eleven, so I thought we could go get a snack or something. I'm kind of sick of studying."

Austin's jaw dropped and he nudged her teasingly. "Is the ever-studious _Ally Dawson_ saying that she wants a break from studying?"

Ally blushed, and fiddled nervously with her hair. "I mean – well – yeah, I _guess_ ," she said.

The blonde grinned, and stood immediately, sweeping everything into his backpack with one arm. Ally cringed, as though she couldn't handle the haphazard way he chucked everything in, as she packed her bag with much more finesse and order. When she was done packing everything up neatly, Austin slung his backpack over one shoulder and motioned with his head towards the door, letting her lead the way.

"Where are we going?" He asked curiously, one hand clutching his backpack strap and the other shoved into his pocket to prevent himself from doing something _crazy_ like grabbing her hand. Ally tottered along beside him, her backpack actually on both shoulders as it should be (which was probably why her posture was so much better than his) and her hands gripping her backpack straps as they walked along.

"Mm… Starbucks, maybe?" She suggested, tipping her head to the side and nodding towards the shop. "I kinda want one of those caramel macchiato things," she admitted. "No judging! Starbucks is _delicious_ , despite all the hipster memes about it."

Austin chuckled and held his hands up in surrender. "No judging here, chatterbox," he said as they stepped in and sat down on a small, round table, with tall chairs. "Besides, Starbucks always has banana bread, which everyone knows is the best kind of bread to exist," he stated matter-of-factly.

A small feeling of success spread through Austin's body when Ally sniggered behind her palm, clearly amused with his antics. "I do like banana bread," she agreed with a shy smile.

He grinned stupidly at her, eyes following the curve of her lips, past her cute little nose, before they met her big, round eyes, which twinkled back warmly at him. They sat still for a moment, just grinning widely at one another. His feet kicked mindlessly at the rungs of the chair, long legs swinging back and forth, accidentally brushing hers, since she seemed to be swinging her legs mindlessly as well. Her legs stilled, and with a raised eyebrow, Austin retracted his own, but made sure to slowly brush his strong calves against her slender ones as he did so, hoping she would understand that he didn't necessarily _want_ to pull his leg back. Her big eyes never left his, her smile remaining ever-present on her face as the beginnings of a blush began to colour her cheeks with a rosy hue.

 _Maybe she enjoyed his company just as much as he enjoyed hers._

It was only when Ally cleared her throat and turned to rummage through her backpack for her wallet that he remembered that they were in Starbucks to eat, not to admire Ally's cute face. He dumped his backpack on the floor beside them and stood, patting his back pocket to check that his wallet was still there before he sauntered up to the counter.

"How may I help you?" asked the girl at the counter, giving Austin a clearly bored and forced smile.

He heard Ally humming quietly behind him, clearly waiting to place her order when he was done.

"Two slices of banana bread and an iced chocolate, to have here please," he said, smiling pleasantly at the girl.

"Will that be all?" She asked, sounding just as bored as her smile looked. Clearly, the early morning shift was not a fun shift.

Austin paused, and cast a glance over his shoulder. Ally raised an eyebrow at him, clearly wondering what he was doing, and he threw her a wink before facing the girl again. "And one caramel macchiato," he added, taking his wallet out and handing her the cash.

"Wha—hey!" Ally exclaimed, clearly catching onto what he was doing. " _Austin_!"

The girl behind the counter dragged her bored expression from Austin to Ally, before rolling her eyes and taking the money, clearly not bothered to put up with the squabble between the two friends. "Here's your change, here's your number. Wait at your table, and someone will bring you your order when it's ready," she drawled without intonation.

"Thanks," he said, nodding at her and turning to face Ally, whose jaw was hanging open with her eyes narrowed. "What? You heard her, go back to the table," he said cheekily, making shooing gestures with his hands.

"Sir, please get out of the line. You're holding up the other customers," the girl repeated monotonously.

Austin chuckled awkwardly and quickly grabbed Ally's wrist, pulling her out of the line and back to the table. When they were seated, she pursed her lips and glared at him accusingly.

"What?" He asked innocently, eyebrows raised.

"You didn't have to pay," she said, pouting.

"I know I didn't have to," he said, giving her a puzzled look.

"But now I feel bad that I made you pay," she said sadly.

Austin smiled and rolled his eyes with a slight shake of his head. "You didn't make me pay," he pointed out. "I paid without your permission. No big deal though, if you really feel that bad you can just give me the money."

The brunette nodded seriously, and opened her wallet before counting out the exact change carefully (looking adorable while she did), and he watched her with his face resting in the palm of one of his hands, looking amused at how seriously she seemed to be taking this. Once she was satisfied with the exact amount, she looked up at him and nodded with another comically serious face, and pushed the pile of money towards him.

"Cool," he said nodding at it, before pushing it back to her.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, pushing it back. "You said I could pay you back!"

"I did say you could do that," he agreed, pushing it back with a raised eyebrow.

"Then why aren't you taking the money?" She whined, pushing it toward him again.

"I said you could pay me back. I didn't say I'd accept cash," he said slyly as he pushed the money back to her.

Ally made a face, and folded her arms across her chest. "You know, most people would be ecstatic not to have to pay for their friend's food," she said pointedly.

Austin shrugged. "I said I'd let you pay me back!" He protested. "I just didn't specify the payment method."

"Then what's the payment method?" She grumbled, leaning in slightly with her eyes narrowed.

 _A date_ , he wanted to say. _Like a real, romantic date, where I give you flowers and we dress up really nicely and go to a nice diner and then I'll drive you out to the beach and we'll lay on the sand and look at the stars together._

But he knew that Ally was timid and shy, and if he was going to get the date that he so desperately wanted, he would have to fight every natural impulsive urge of his to blurt out how he felt, be patient, and wait for her to feel the same way that he did (because he was confident that he could charm her). Instead, he leaned across the table as well, leaning in closer and closer until they were nose-to-nose. He noted smugly that although a pretty blush spread across her face, and her eyes widened, she didn't pull away.

"You have to guess."

"If you don't want it back in cash, how am I supposed to guess what you want it in? ? A direct bank transfer?" She quipped dryly, tapping her fingers impatiently against her arm and raising an eyebrow at him. He liked that her face was close enough that he could admire each individual eyelash, count each freckle on her nose. He'd never seen her this close before. He liked it.

"I bet he wants a kiss!" An old lady suddenly crowed from a table beside them. The old man beside her looked embarrassed and averted his gaze, as though he didn't wish to be associated with her.

Both Austin and Ally's gazes snapped over to the old lady, clearly not having realised that she'd been listening in on their conversation. Austin raised an eyebrow and faced Ally, giving her a suggestive smirk.

"I'm sure that's not what he meant," Ally squeaked, colour flooding into her cheeks as she placed a hand on the table and leaned back, looking rapidly between Austin and the old lady. The old man had his face in his hands, but Austin could see an exasperated smile peeking between his fingers, as though he were used to his wife doing this to teenagers. "Right, Austin?"

The blonde shrugged, clearly enjoying her embarrassment as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned back, the smirk never leaving his face. He liked the way her eyes dropped to the bulge of his arm muscle for a moment before they flickered up immediately, seemingly embarrassed that she had been caught.

The old lady clapped a hand over her heart. "Aw, isn't that precious! Come on, dear, give him a little kiss. It's the best way not to feel guilty over getting free food," she said seriously.

"Wha – I – it – it isn't like that!" She squawked, looked more and more flustered with each passing moment.

"You don't have to be shy! Don't worry, dear," the old lady said soothingly. "Just give your lovely boyfriend a little kiss and he'll stop teasing you about the payment thing," she promised. "It always works on this one," she said, patting her husband's head affectionately. The old man grunted and finally moved his hand, giving a resigned nod.

"But – Austin!" Ally said, flicking her gaze back to Austin and pouting at him. "Tell them it isn't like that," she whispered, clearly not wanting to break the old lady's heart. Her pout, paired with the big, pleading puppy dog eyes, were almost enough to make Austin give in – but it also just made him want that kiss even more.

"You heard the wise lady, Ally," he chuckled, leaning back over the table and turning his face, tapping his cheek. "You'll feel better after you give me a kiss," he teased.

"Oh, you're just enjoying this way too much," she grumbled, before she cast another glance at the old lady, who was watching them with her hands over her heart, as though she found the pair adorable and was reminiscing on her own youth, where it was _her_ being teased by the elderly.

"Maybe," he said, smirking.

Ally rolled her eyes, but leaned forward nonetheless and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, her lips warm and soft, before she pulled back, looking even more embarrassed.

Warmth spread over his entire face where her lips had gently pressed, little tingles fluttering from the point on his cheek all the way to his brain until he was grinning stupidly, and the old lady let out a little wolf whistle before she turned back to her husband and proceeded to gush over how cute they were and how they were _just like them_ when they were that age. The old man nodded with a bemused expression, clearly used to her antics after so long, and Austin wondered what it felt like, to still be in love after all those years. He cast a glance at Ally, where she was studiously staring at the slices of banana bread and drinks that had been placed in front of them, the blush still obviously spread over her cheeks. If that was how she looked after kissing his _cheek_ , he wondered how he could make her look after kissing her… _elsewhere_.

Who knew that an old lady in a Starbucks could be the best wingman he's ever had?

* * *

"Take a five, kids, that was great," Miss Suzy called. "I'm sorry that I can't give you a longer break, but opening night is in two weeks!" She said, shaking her head. "Have some water, rest your feet."

The cast nodded at her and disbanded. Austin followed Kira offstage where their bags were and took out his bottle. He chugged half of it, before he looked at her, who was watching him with amusement. She drank from her bottle in a far more civilised way, raising an eyebrow at him. They sat in silence for a little while, before Austin pouted.

"What? No 'great job out there, Austin'?" He joked, poking her in the arm.

"No 'great job out there, Kira'?" She countered back smoothly, smirking.

"Oh, shut up," Austin muttered, smiling as he shook his head.

Kira grinned and held her hands up in surrender, miming zipping up her lips. "If I shut up, though, how would I say 'great job out there, Austin'?"

"I – you – but I – just – I – shut _uuup_ ," Austin whined, pouting a little.

The raven-haired girl laughed, and reached up to ruffle his hair. "You're such a big baby," she told him. "Great job out there, Austin," she mocked.

"Great job out there, Kira," he mocked right back, sticking his tongue out at her childishly. This only caused her to laugh more, and his pouty expression relaxed into a warm smile. "Anyway," he said, leaning back against the chair, his long legs strewn out in front of him. "What's up? Has you-know-who stopped leaving you little gifts in your locker yet?"

Kira chuckled dryly. "I've given up on trying to make it stop. Besides, we only have a few more months to endure of her, and then she's out of my life forever," she pointed out. "And…. Trish has a plan, anyway, so it's not like she won't get her comeuppance."

Austin raised an eyebrow. "A plan? You mentioned that last time," he mused, tapping his chin.

"Well, actually," Kira said, eyes lighting up. "Trish doesn't want me to tell anyone about the plan, especially not you, because she says it'll ruin her plan and Ally agreed that if Trish doesn't want anyone to know about the plan we shouldn't tell anyone – but I think it's just so much easier if we _do_ tell you about the plan because then you can help and -"

"Kira, slow down," Austin laughed, holding his hands up. "A plan? That sounds really interesting. I've heard Trish is really good at revenge," he said, before smiling pleasantly. "So! How can I help, then?"

"We need you to—"

" _Austy_!"

Both Austin and Kira groaned in unison, recognising the high-pitched voice immediately.

"What?" He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking up at the blonde. _Speak of the devil and thy shall be summoned_.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking," Tilly said, sitting in the chair next to him. She looked at Kira with an unimpressed expression. "Kira, this is kind of a _private_ talk between lovers, so if you could, y'know, vamoose."

Kira scoffed. " _Lovers_? The poor boy can't _stand_ you, Tilly! Can't you see how uncomfortable he is?"

"Austy and I are _in love_ ," Tilly argued. "You're not uncomfortable around me, right Austy?"

Austin grimaced.

Kira snorted.

Tilly frowned.

"Look, c'mon, just leave the poor boy alone, okay? This is a closed rehearsal, anyway," she said pointedly.

The blonde rolled her eyes. "I'm your _understudy_ , Kira Starr."

"And you're not needed at the moment," she said, looking bored. "Austin, just tell her she makes you uncomfortable."

"Now, I mean, I'm sure there's no need to hurt her feelin—"

Tilly cut him off. "See? I don't make him uncomfortable," she said smugly, plopping herself into his lap.

Austin let out a surprised squeal akin to a prepubescent boy, his hands flying to the armrests of his seat and gripping it tightly, his eyes squeezed shut in fear. " _You make uncomfortable_ ," he squawked out in a high-pitched voice.

He could hear Kira chuckling, and heard Tilly scoff.

"See? You scare him so much that his balls shoot back up into his body and he cries for his mother," she said.

"Do not!" Tilly protested.

Austin thought maybe, just maybe, if he kept his eyes squeezed shut and remained tense and uncomfortable, the heavens would take mercy on him and the ground would swallow him up. Hopefully Tilly would be too sour for the ground's taste, and it would spit her back out so that he could succumb to the blissful darkness alone. (Perhaps he was being a _little_ dramatic.)

"Are you kidding me?" Kira asked, sounding amused. "Didn't you hear that _squeal_? It's like, he went backwards in puberty and is trying to crawl back into the womb just to get away from you."

"I don't have to sit here and take this!" Tilly huffed angrily.

"Then don't. Literally nobody asked you to stay," Kira sighed.

The blonde cheerleader stood again with another disgusted scoff, and he heard her turn on her heel and walk away. So… the ground didn't swallow him up, but at least he had Kira around. He opened his eyes and relaxed, running a hand through his hair.

"Thanks, Kir," he said gratefully. "So – what were you saying before we were interrupted?"

"Ah! The plan. Okay, so—"

"Sorry everyone!" Miss Suzy called out. "Break's over! Back to work!"

Kira pursed her lips, looking miffed. "I guess I'll have to tell you later."

Austin chuckled, and stood. "I guess so."

When they finished rehearsal, however, he didn't get a chance to talk to Kira before Dez dragged him away for their weekly Pizza Day, and he was left pondering what this so-called plan was.

* * *

As much fun as it was getting to see Ally each Saturday to work on both their music project, _and_ to study, Austin was very rapidly getting tired of wasting his entire Saturday just to study more. She had done the majority of the work on the essay, since she didn't seem to trust him with writing a good essay after he had written 'It seems unfair that the Baroque era is named after only one composer. If they were going to name it after any composer, you would think that they would name it after Bach or Vivaldi, who are much more popular and better known than Baroque. What did Baroque even compose?' (He had thought it was an _excellent_ point, and had argued with Ally to keep it in. Of course, Ally had won that argument, as he soon discovered that Baroque was not a composer and really was just the name of the era.)

"I'm bored," Austin declared, leaning back on his bed and putting his laptop to the side.

"You're always bored," Ally droned from his computer chair, where she was working on the essay.

"Am not!" He protested.

"You're always bored when we're studying," she amended, still not looking up from her laptop.

Austin let out a vague grunt and sat up again, leaning back on his hands. He inspected Ally curiously for a little while, noting how she didn't slouch when she sat, and how neatly her legs were crossed. He hadn't really seen her with a ponytail before, but he liked the way it cascaded down her back, and how it subtly drew his attention to the delicate curve of her jawline and exposed the milky white skin of her neck. He decided he liked seeing her with her hair pushed back, because even though her hair usually framed her face quite cutely, seeing it pulled back only accented the features of her high cheekbones and her cute little nose.

"I'm bored," he repeated, glancing over at his laptop again. He was sick of composing, and thought that if he listened to another computerised chirp of the trumpets again, he would chuck his laptop – and the music program he was using – right out the window.

"Austin, we've been through this," she said patiently, still not looking up from the essay. She pursed her lips, highlighting a section and deleting it. "We can take a break in ten minutes."

The blonde let out a discontented grumble and looked back at his laptop, before rubbing a hand over his face and pulling it back onto his lap. His tongue peeked out between his lips in concentration as he tinkered with different melody and instrument lines, before he decided his brain was full. He saved the composition and then shut his laptop, leaving it on his bed, before he stood up and walked over to Ally.

"Hm, what?" She asked, not looking up from the screen as she finished typing her sentence.

"I'm _bored_ ," Austin told her.

Ally leaned back in the chair and pinched the bridge of her nose. "And what do you want me to do about that, Austin? I told you. We can take a break in… five minutes, now."

"Five minutes isn't that long," he pointed out. "Let's just start that break early."

"Exactly. Five minutes isn't that long. Go sit over there and let me finish up this paragraph, okay?" She said, leaning forward in the chair again and placed her hands over the keyboard.

With another little grumble, Austin pouted at her – but he couldn't use his face to get his way this time, because she wasn't even looking at him. He poked her, but she didn't respond, and no matter what he did she just kept focussing on the essay until finally, after five minutes, she saved the file and leaned back in her chair calmly.

"See? Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" She deadpanned.

"We're going on an adventure," Austin declared, choosing to ignore the sarcasm in her tone.

"…What kind of adventure?" Ally asked suspiciously.

"A fun one," he decreed, grabbing her wrist and pulling her out of his chair. Ally let out a little squeak of surprise.

"I don't know, Austin. Your idea of fun is very different to my idea of fun," she pointed out. "I like cloud watching and you like surfing. I don't think we're going to find anything that we're both going to enjoy."

His jaw dropped in mock shock. "Ally Dawson, are you saying that hanging out with me is _boring_?"

"N-No!" She exclaimed, eyes widening and shaking her head. "That's not what I'm saying at all!"

"It sounds like you are!"

"That's not what I meant!" She protested. "I just think that we have different ideas of fun!"

"Challenge accepted, chatterbox," he said, throwing her a cheeky wink.

"Wai-wait! What challenge? I didn't challenge you to anything!"

"Really? Because to me, it sounds like you've challenged me to give you a completely super fun day that we'll _both_ enjoy," he smirked. "You should know that I don't back down easily from a challenge, Dawson. I bet I can make today way more fun for both of us than you can."

Ally's nostrils flared and she put her hands on her hips. "Are you saying that you're more fun than me?"

He put his hands in his pockets and leaned back casually, raising an eyebrow. "I don't recall saying that," he said innocently.

This time it was Ally's turn for her jaw to drop. "That's it. We're going to go out and have _so much fun_ , Moon. We're gonna have so much fun that tomorrow you're gonna wake up and sad because you know there's no way you're going to have as much fun tomorrow as you had _today_."

Austin smirked. "Are you just going to talk about having fun, or are we gonna have fun?"

Ally's eyes narrowed. "Oh, it is _so_ on, rockstar. Today's gonna be the best day _ever_ ," she growled.

Which was how Austin found himself walking alongside Ally through the mall of Miami as they went through a list of things to do, bickering back and forth as they discussed what was or was not fun.

"You said we would have _fun_ ," Austin pointed out. "Cloud watching is not _fun_. Relaxing, maybe, but not _fun_."

"Relaxing is fun!" Ally protested.

He rolled his eyes, before he nodded in the direction of the ice cream store. "Ice cream is fun," he suggested, leading her into the shop.

"Well, I mean, ice cream itself isn't fun – it's delicious, but not fun – unless you mean eating it, in which case, yes, I suppose eating it is fun. Or maybe it's not fun, I mean, it's not like you're doing anything special when you eat ice cream – but you're having a good time, which is the definition of fun, right? I mean, who's to really _define_ fun –"

"One double scoop – no, actually, can I have a triple scoop? – of chocolate chip cookie dough," Austin told the cashier, cutting Ally off mid-ramble. He turned to face her. "What do you want?" He asked, getting out his wallet.

Ally blinked rapidly, and cleared her throat. She turned to the cashier with a small smile. "One fruity mint swirl – in a cup, please," she said.

"Ten fifty," the cashier replied, and before Austin could react, Ally was already handing over a twenty-dollar note.

His jaw dropped as she pushed him over to the side while they waited for their ice cream cones. Ally hummed happily to herself as she put her wallet away, and then looked up, looking surprised at his shocked expression. She gave him a cheeky smile.

"What?" She asked innocently, batting her eyelashes coyly at him.

"You just – I – _what_? You didn't have to pay for me?"

Ally raised an eyebrow. "So it's okay for you to pay for me but not me to pay for you?"

"No – that's not what I – I just – _chivalry_."

"Chivalry or chauvinism?" She joked.

Austin rolled his eyes. "It's not a burn if I don't know what it means," he said, sticking his tongue out. "I still feel bad."

"Great, now you know how I felt," she mocked. "Revenge is a dish best served cold. In delicious, creamy goodness form."

"…And the paying thing is non-negotiable?" He asked, raising his eyebrows as the cashier leaned over the counter and handed them their ice creams. "Because I wouldn't mind kissing your cheek as payment," he joked.

Her cheeks lit up in a wild blush almost immediately. "Oh, ha-ha, Austin," she scoffed. "There are no old ladies around to make you do that," she added with a smirk.

He had never wished so hard in his life for an old lady to walk through that door.

"Fine, fine, you win," he chuckled, leading the way out of the ice cream store and towards the beach. "What do you wanna do?"

"I thought you were going to make today the _best day ever_ ," she quipped.

"Well, to do that, I have to know what you wanna do," he said, nudging her lightly with his shoulder as they walked along the pavement, with the backdrop of the beach just a little further down.

Ally bit her lip and smiled to herself, poking at her ice cream with the little plastic spoon. "This is nice," she mumbled, staring steadfastly at her ice cream – and he wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but her cheeks looked rosier than usual and he wondered if he had somehow made her blush without even trying.

"Your ice cream?" He asked, not quite understanding what she meant.

"Well – yeah," she said, before she looked up at him with wide, happy eyes. "But also just… this. I'm having fun just hanging out with you," she admitted nervously. "We don't need to do anything special for it to be fun."

It was Austin's turn to blush, eyes focussed on her instead of on the footpath ahead of them as they walked along. "I'm having fun just being with you, too, Ally," he told her.

She relaxed and gave him a wide grin, before turning her face away. "You'd say we're friends, right?"

His jaw dropped. "Seriously?"

At his surprise, she grew nervous again. "I – I mean, of course, if you don't think that, then like, it's cool, I guess – it's just – I thought maybe we were – I don't know – like – friends, I guess – but if you don't think that then –"

"Ally, of course I think we're friends!" He laughed, rolling his eyes. He grabbed her wrist with one hand to stop her from walking, and then pulled her towards him. She stumbled into his chest, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a small hug, She hesitantly wrapped an arm around him as well, holding her cup of ice cream a little bit away from their bodies, and then turned her face into his chest, seemingly comforted by his warmth. He carefully held his ice cream cone away from her, not wanting to risk any of dripping on her. "I had no idea you felt this way. Ally, I've considered us friends since we worked together, like, two years ago," he explained.

"Really?" She asked, tilting her head back and looking at him with surprisingly vulnerable eyes.

In that moment, it suddenly occurred to Austin that maybe Ally wasn't antisocial. Maybe it wasn't that she found it too draining to hang out with other people besides the ones she already had established relationships with. Maybe it wasn't that she was shy.

Maybe Ally Dawson was afraid of rejection.

It made sense to him – and he suspected that it tied in with her stage fright. She was too afraid of being rejected to allow herself to get close to anybody without constant reassurance. It wasn't that she was cynical or believed that people would only hurt her; she was simply too scared that people wouldn't like her in general.

"Yes, really, Ally," he murmured, looking down at her. "I can prove it to you," he added with a small smirk.

"How would you do that?" She asked quietly, looking up at him through her eyelashes, somehow looking adorable and sexy all at the same time.

Austin quirked an eyebrow at her and batted his lashes playfully. He began to lean his face towards her, testing to see if she would pull away, and when she didn't, his smug smile only grew. This could be his chance! To kiss Ally and finally take her on that date he so desperately wanted – so, on impulse, he continued to lean in, his eyelashes fluttering shut as he reached up with his hand to cup her cheek.

"Your hand is cold!" Ally exclaimed, recoiling backward. She let out a little giggle, awkwardly lunging backwards away from the small pocket of warmth between their bodies, and let out a deranged chuckle. "Like, icy cold. And your ice cream is dripping!"

Austin blinked, trying to process the fact that he had been millimetres away from kissing the girl of his dreams, and watched as she nervously dropped her gaze from his and poked violently at her scoops of ice cream in her cup. He looked at his hand, which was sticky now as his ice cream was, in fact, dripping, and with a disappointed expression that he attempted to hide, he licked his hand clean and then wiped it against his jeans to get off any excess. He cleared his throat – he had clearly made her uncomfortable, and while he didn't quite believe that it was a rejection, he also knew that she wasn't ready for whatever it was he had planned.

Instead, he smiled at her and motioned to the beach. "Wanna go down there?" He suggested as they began to walk along again.

"To the beach?" Ally asked, craning her head past his body and squinting at the beach. "Yeah. Why not?"

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "I'm not a big fan of the beach, honestly," she admitted shyly. "Sand gets everywhere and you feel lame if you're not in a bikini but you feel fat if you _are_ in one and women should be able to wear whatever the hell they want but you're surrounded by all these people who are so incredibly confident with their body that they can walk around with a bikini – and I think that's the key, you know? It doesn't matter whether or not you have abs or if you're slim or anything, as long as you wear it confidently, you look good. So does that mean that even if I have a body deemed 'nice' by society, but I'm not confident, I would look bad? Because I'm not confident? It's weird." She shook her head and then pursed her lips. "…Also, I don't like seeing old men wearing tight – you know – like – _banana hammocks_."

Austin raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you saying you like seeing _young_ men wearing 'tight – you know – like – _banana hammocks_ '?" He teased, nudging her with his shoulder.

Ally rolled her eyes, looking embarrassed. "I mean – I mean – _no_ , I don't really – but I guess – I guess if they _look_ nice then it isn't that bad…"

The blond snorted, shaking his head with an amused smile. "My, my, Ally. Who knew you were such a little perv?"

"Oh, shut up," she groaned, hiding behind one of her hands.

He let out a proper laugh then, continuing to walk along aimlessly with her as they finished their ice creams, continuing to mock each other.

"Oooh!" He exclaimed suddenly, pointing to a corndog vendor. "Are you hungry?" He asked, and grabbed her wrist to drag him towards the vendor without giving her an option.

"Austin, we just had ice cream!" Ally protested.

"One to share?" He suggested, getting his wallet out with one hand. "And a lemonade, please!" He added, taking out the cash to give the vendor.

"No thanks," Ally said, sticking her tongue out at him and trying to walk away.

"Aw, don't be like that," he pouted, grabbing her hand and pulling her back to him as he shoved his wallet back into his back pocket.

The vendor gave them back their food, and Austin took the corndog while Ally sighed and grabbed the lemonade, before they thanked him and walked away, with him munching on the corndog and her sipping on the lemonade.

"C'mon Ally, it's really good, I promise," he said, holding the corndog to her face.

She made a face at him, but then rolled her eyes and took a bite. "Yeah, yeah, it's good I guess."

Austin laughed and leaned his head towards her. "Don't hog the lemonade!"

"Bleh," she said, poking her tongue out at him again as she held the cup towards him for him to take a sip.

He hummed happily as they walked along, noting smugly that she hadn't yet pulled her hand away, and swung their hands together gently. Ally suddenly looked up at him and pursed her lips, swirling the half-drunken cup around.

"You never said how you could prove it to me," she said, blinking rapidly. He thought he saw her gaze drop to his lips for a moment, but before he could be sure, she met his eyes once more.

"What?" He asked dumbly, not sure what she was referring to.

"Earlier. You said you could prove to me that we're really friends."

Austin's confused expressed broke into an easy smile, and he twisted his hand slightly in her grip so that he could lace their fingers together. "Ally," he said, standing still for a moment and tugging on her hand so she wouldn't keep walking. "We're definitely friends. I'd even say that we're really good friends."

She bit her lip and smiled up at him, looking at him through her lashes with those big brown eyes of hers and _oh god, he wanted to kiss her so badly_.

But she had clearly grown uncomfortable when he'd tried to kiss her before, so he restrained himself, and instead grinned down at her.

"Remember when you said just hanging out was fun? Well, it's true. I wasn't worried about today being the best day ever 'cause honestly? …Any day with you is the best day ever."

She looked momentarily speechless, and before he knew it, she'd wrapped her arms around him in a hug. He could feel the cold drink against his back, but as he dropped his face into her neck, he found he didn't mind. Maybe – just maybe – if he played his cards right, he would get that kiss he so desperately wanted.

* * *

 **A/N: And there we have it! Hopefully I won't take months to update again (because honestly, I'm super excited for the next chapter!) Anyway:**

 **Letmetakeyourpicturebaby:** Thank you! I really hope I'm getting the characters right because the whole point of fanfiction is to enjoy these characters in a different setting, right? The plan is the whoooole plot though! Don't worry, my dear. Auslly are in good hands.

 **Auslly0731** : Oh, she definitely is. But who wouldn't fall for Austin?! He's such a cutie! He's biding his time.

 **Dont-Stop-Believin:** Heh. Well I didn't update soon. Sorry xD

 **Lookin' For Treble:** Well, Austin's great grandfather was actually a teeny tiny magical porcupine, you know? So he's got cuteness running in his genes.

 **Adorakablerauraxauslly** : Haha! Well that just meant you got to read two chapters for the price of one ;) I'm glad you're enjoying the banter! Same

 **axswiftxa13** : I think they're cute too! And lmao I think I took your advice of 'taking my time' a little too seriously.

 **ScorpioSmile:** Aw, thank you cutie! I hope this chapter made you swoon too. I honestly love hearing about what your favourite parts are because then I know what sort of things to write more about. And ah, the studying thing – it's not really a plot point, but it was interesting that you picked up on it. I just feel like Austin's a little insecure about the whole 'studying' thing because he doesn't want people to think he's stupid, so that's what that is haha. And thank you! All the best in school.

 **Chubby bunny:** Well then I certainly hope this wait was worth it lmao

 **Guest:** I actually have the whole story planned out, chapter by chapter! And judging from what you want to see happen, I think you're really going to like the next chapter ;)

 **xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx** : Lmao I hope this was worth it

 **Guest:** He won't get hurt! Don't worry! I WILL PROTECT HIM.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** **-emerges from the dead- Lmao what up fam I think it's been like 6 months since I last updated or something anyway here you go it's kind of mediocre but it's where the story pivots and things start to get interesting. I've already started the next chapter and I'm going to do my best to get it done within this month! (lol probs not). Anyway, here we goooooooo!**

 **Word Count: 4239**

* * *

Ally stared at Austin.

He stared back, with that beautiful, charming, impossibly irresistible smile of his.

She frowned at him, her eyebrows knitting together and her lips jutting out in an annoyed pout.

Of course, he continued to stare at her with that same beautiful, charming, impossibly irresistible smile of his.

Ally scowled.

His smile didn't change.

But why would it change? She was, after all, merely staring at a picture of him. It was a selfie he had taken when he had stolen her phone while they were working on their assignment, and he looked – well, beautiful, charming, and impossibly irresistible.

" _Why are you so attractive_?!" Ally groaned, burying her face into her pillow and kicking her legs back and forth in the air in frustration.

The photo didn't reply. In retrospect, Ally was glad that the picture of Austin didn't reply – man, would that be creepy.

The tiny brunette let out a small sigh and locked her phone, setting it neatly on her bedside table before rolling onto her back and splaying out across her bed, a hand thrown dramatically over her eyes. Closing her eyes didn't help, though, because when she closed her eyes all she could see instead of warm, comforting darkness, was Austin's sparkly hazel eyes and the way they came closer and closer, his warm breath washing over her lips until he was close enough that she could count every single long eyelash as they fluttered shut, but then –

She opened her eyes. She couldn't exactly imagine what it would be like to kiss him when she hadn't actually kissed him.

Ally scowled.

She rolled back onto her stomach and reached for her phone again, unlocking it and opening the barrage of selfies he had taken again. She glared at them, as though it would wipe the goofy, silly smiles off of every single face in her camera roll. She sighed as she clicked on one and flicked through the endless snapshots of double chins, flared nostrils, and furrowed brows, thinking that it was impossible that somebody could look so good while purposefully trying to look bad.

"This is your fault," she told the selfies. She stopped on a photo of him with his nose scrunched up and eyes alight with laughter. She was in the back corner of that, her jaw wide open as she realised what he had been doing, and there were a whole series of photos after that depicting Austin laughing insanely as he continued to take photos, with her getting closer and closer to the camera as she attempted to get her phone back from him. "This is your fault," she repeated, frowning at the selfie he had taken where he had draped his arm over her shoulder and easily held her down, his smile impossibly large while she scowled at the camera, clearly unamused that she couldn't get to her phone. "Why are you so _damn_ attractive?!"

It wasn't just that he was physically attractive – one glance at his toned physique and shining hazel eyes could tell anybody that he was nothing short of an Adonis – but he had to go and be perfect and sweet and adorable too. Gah! Couldn't he consider Ally's feelings for _once_ and be at least a _little_ bit jerky so that she wouldn't feel so attracted to him?

"Asshole," she muttered.

It was clear to her that he had wanted to kiss her. Maybe it was a pity kiss, or maybe he genuinely wanted to kiss her – but it was obvious that he had wanted to kiss her. She had panicked, scared about leading him on, which was why she had rejected his kiss initially and nervously pulled away before he could. But would she really be leading him on? If she had let him kiss her?

It scared her that she wanted to kiss him back.

Like, really, _really_ wanted to kiss him back.

So much so that she had even fished around for another kiss, only a little while after she had rejected his first attempt at a kiss. His breath smelled like corndogs and her hands were sticky from the lemonade but in that moment she had wanted to kiss him, had batted her eyelashes in what she had hoped was seductive – and instead of kissing her, he had instead said something that made her heart pound and only made her want to kiss him that much more.

 _Any day with you is the best day ever_.

Gah! Couldn't he at least _try_ to be a little less attractive?

She felt awful doing Trish's plan. Austin deserved so much more than being led on the way her best friend's plan dictated. He was sweet and funny and absolutely wonderful. She remembered what her friends had said a few weeks prior.

" _It's not like it would be hard to get Austin to fall in love with Ally, seeing as he's already all flirty with her and whatnot."_

" _Yeah, and I'm like, eighty percent sure that he has a crush on her."_

She wondered why it made her feel tingly to think that Austin had a crush on her. It made her feel guilty too, though – surely Trish wouldn't mind _that_ much to alter the plan _just slightly_ and let him in on it? Kira agreed with her, she knew, and she had only sided with Trish because she knew that Trish had perfectionist tendencies and things had to go according to plan or she would feel awful. But it had reached a point where Ally couldn't humour her friend anymore – if pandering to Trish's need for perfection meant hurting Austin, she didn't want to do that anymore. She remembered what she had overheard Trish say to Kira.

" _But we don't want to get his heart broken, too," Trish pointed out. "He's a nice guy. If Ally doesn't like him in that way, we shouldn't get her to manipulate him like that. That would be mean, leading him on like that. We only want Tilly to get hurt, not Austin as well."_

Surely her friend would understand!

As though summoned by her thoughts – or perhaps just the fact that her friends had been planning on coming to Ally's house at this time – the door suddenly flung open and Trish and Kira strolled inside her room. Ally quickly locked her phone, not wanting her friends to see her pathetically staring at the photo of her and Austin.

"Geez Ally, you could at least try to look presentable for us," Trish joked, flopping down on her bed beside her. Kira flopped down on her other side, imitating Trish and lying on her back, hands folded across her stomach as they both looked up at the ceiling.

"You could do the same," Ally grumbled, shuffling about awkwardly between them as she rolled onto her back as well.

"Ooft, she's in a bad mood," Kira said, smirking at Trish over Ally's head.

"I can see _and_ hear you," Ally muttered.

"Maybe we could pour a bucket of water on her," Trish suggested.

"Wouldn't that just make her angry?" Kira wondered.

The Latina shrugged, eyes trained on the ceiling. "Ally's way more interesting when she's angry and all fired up."

"Again! I _can_ see and hear you!" Ally exclaimed.

"I like Ally when she's quietly sassy," Kira mused.

"That's true, she is very good at being quietly sassy."

The three of them fell into a silence, with Kira smiling happily up at the ceiling with her eyes closed, Trish inspecting her nails with a bored expression, and Ally grumbling with her brows furrowed and her lips jutted out in an annoyed pout.

Well, the brunette thought, it was now or never.

"I wanna tell Au- _you_ how – um – good you look in – in that shirt – like – like _damn_ , Trish, is that – is that cheetah _and_ leopard print? You know, it takes a fierce, _fierce_ woman to pull off a bold look like that."

Trish sat up and raised an eyebrow at her, clearly aware that that wasn't what she had been planning on saying. The two stared at each other, too stubborn to break. It was a game of willpower, and Ally was determined to make Trish break first.

"Ally, just save us all some time and admit that you want to tell Austin about the plan," Kira groaned, sitting up as well and shoving Ally. "And save us even _more_ time and tell us about your massive crush on him – and _his_ on _you_."

Ally blushed immediately and started stuttering, shaking her head. "N-No, I mean – th-the first part, yes, that's true, but – b-but – look – you're – you're way off base!"

This time it was Trish's turn to groan. "In the interest of saving time, you can cut short your whole 'I'm moving to New York, high school relationships never last, you _really_ love your friendship!' spiel," she said dryly.

"…But all of that's true," Ally grumbled, sullenly playing with her fingers.

Trish didn't respond, but she felt the bed shift as Kira moved off the bed and stretched. "Regardless of the whole, 'who likes who' thing, I've already told you guys before: Austin is a really cool guy. He'd be down for this. I think we should tell him."

Before Ally could jump in with an organised list of arguments, Trish groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Geez, guys! I'm really sick of hearing this. If you wanna tell him, then tell him. Either don't stuff up the plan, or don't do the plan, but if you really wanna tell him about it, then tell him. I want Tilly to feel as bad as she made Kira feel, and I know that makes me a bad person, but this plan seems the most civil way to do it. Ally, if you want to actually date Austin, then date him! He's great. I'm just sick of talking about this, guys."

Kira nodded and walked to Trish before holding out her hand to shake it. "Deal."

"Deal."

Meanwhile, Ally was watching the whole exchange with a perplexed expression, trying to figure out what just happened.

* * *

The little bell jingled, indicating a new customer at the store as a familiar head of blond walked in – the very head of blond that Ally had been trying her best to find. She looked up and smiled, waving at Austin, who grinned back at her and quickly made his way over to the counter.

"Hey, Ally," he said, practically bouncing up and down on his heels in excitement.

"Hey," she laughed back, raising an eyebrow. "What's got you so excited?"

" _Well_ ," he smirked, waggling his eyebrows at her, "I finally saved up for a new guitar. You know that one I've had my eye on for a few months? I'm here to claim it as my own!"

Austin just looked so pleased that Ally couldn't help but feel excited too. She nodded, giving him an awkward thumbs up and motioning to the guitar rack that he'd been spending so much time around. She didn't really know what else to say. "Congratulations?" She tried, before she realised that sounded uninterested and sarcastic. "I - I mean – like – I'm really happy for you, Austin!"

He looked amused with her and shook his head with a small laugh before he walked over to the guitar rack to retrieve it. Ally took this as an opportunity to rehearse in her head just how she would ask him to be her fake boyfriend. She wanted to sound cool, suave, sophisticated… but it suddenly occurred to her just how immature this plan was. What if he didn't want to help them? What if he told Tilly? What if he thought _she_ was stupid and lame for agreeing to partake in a plan like this?

What if… he actually agreed?

Then she would have to pretend to be his girlfriend. She would have to hold his hand when they walked together in school. She'd have to steal kisses between classes, and stand between him and his locker, with one of his arms beside her and the other on her waist. She would have to wear his letterman jacket and eat lunch with his friends sometimes. Worst of all, when no one was watching and it was just the two of them again, she would have to pretend that she didn't want to do all those things _for realsies._

And she kind of wanted to do all those things _for realsies_.

A hand was waving in front of her face. The hand started clicking. Someone was calling her name.

Ally blinked rapidly and realised that Austin was trying to get her attention.

"Helloooo?" He questioned, tapping his finger against her temple. "Anyone home?"

Ally blushed and shoved his hand away. "Very funny. What?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and held up the boxed guitar. "I mean, I'm totally fine with you letting me just walk out of the store without paying, but, uh, it'd be a shame to have wasted all that time saving up…"

Once more, Ally's cheeks flushed and she ducked her head before quickly ringing up the bill for him and handing it to him. "I – um – have a nice day," she squawked.

Austin smiled and gave her a little salute. "See you later. We're still on for studying tomorrow, right?"

Ally nodded shyly. "U-Um – um yeah," she stammered.

The blond chuckled and gave another little wave before turning and starting to walk away. Ally's eyes widened with alarm when she realised she had missed her chance and she panicked.

"W-Wait! Austin, I need you!" She blurted out, not realising how weird that sounded until she said it out loud.

He turned around slowly with his eyebrows raised and a very smug smile on his face, which only served in making her cheeks light up in a fiery blush. He slowly sauntered back up to the counter and set his guitar down on the floor, placing both hands on the counter and leaning forward. Ally's eyes widened even more and she gulped heavily, her mind in a flurry as she tried to figure out how to word her request without digging herself into an even deeper hole. Austin inspected her curiously for a moment, the smug smirk never leaving his face as he leaned even closer so that he was eye level with her, his nose mere centimetres from her own. She blinked rapidly in surprise.

"You _need_ me, huh, Dawson?" He asked huskily, his breath washing over her lips.

Her cheeks heated up uncontrollably and she was certain that her face was the colour of blood. "I – I – um – I didn't – d-didn't mean it like –"

He raised his eyebrows and leaned in even closer, just close enough that their noses were brushing. "Then how did you mean it, hmm?" He asked, his voice silky smooth.

 _The Lord is testing me,_ she thought hazily.

Only the amused twitch that lifted the corner of his mouth reminded Ally that he was probably just messing with her. After all, she _had_ just called out 'I need you!' in the middle of Sonic Boom, but thankfully the store was empty except for the two of them. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to push him away, but she would certainly be embarrassed to be caught in this position if there were any customers nearby.

"I just – um – I meant that… I need you to – t-to go on – to, um – to be my boyfriend," she managed to get out.

Austin's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Her eyes widened in alarm.

"Really?" He asked, leaning back with an incredulous expression. His smug smirk twitched into an excited grin.

Ally felt like a deer caught in headlights. A really stupid, stunned deer, that wasn't even going to scuttle off the road even if the driver honked at them. She nodded awkwardly, gesturing wildly and she tried to figure out how to get out of the situation she had cornered herself into.

"Of course I will," he said at the same time that Ally added on quickly, "I mean, my fake boyfriend!"

They both stared at each in confusion.

 _Of course I will._

He stared at her, but this time it was _his_ cheeks heating up in a blush. (Except, she was still blushing, so she thought it would be a bit hypocritical to make fun of him for it.) Ally twiddled her thumbs and stared down at the counter, swallowing heavily, before gaining the courage to look up at him.

"Umm… You will?"

Austin averted his gaze and scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, of course I'll be your fake boyfriend," he said casually, as though trying to cover up what he'd just said.

"But you said 'of course I will' before I said 'fake boyfriend'," she pointed out, pursing her lips.

"Yeah, I uh…" He cleared his throat and met her questioning gaze. Austin pursed his lips as well, staring at her as though asking some kind of question that she didn't know the answer to.

And Ally really, _really_ hated not knowing the answer to things.

"I knew you meant fake boyfriend," he said, shrugging. "As if you would outright ask somebody to be your boyfriend without even asking him on a date first. You're way too shy to do something like that, anyway," he pointed out. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself. He gave her a small smile, but it almost seemed forced. "I figured you meant fake boyfriend. Probably to make somebody jealous?" He guessed, his smile turning sad for a moment before he cleared his throat and looked away awkwardly.

"Um – well – yes – s-sort of," she said, looking embarrassed. "It's… hm." She played with her hair before taking a deep breath and deciding to just tell him everything before things could get even more awkward. "Okay, so, you're probably going to think I'm really immature for agreeing to this but Trish kind of wants to wreak revenge on Tilly for being so mean to Kira and so she formed this plan of revenge which I think was really awful because revenge is morally wrong and we all know that these kind of things never turn out the way they're planned and who even knows who else might get hurt by this besides Tilly? And shouldn't we be taking the high road instead of stooping to her level and bullying her, otherwise aren't we just as bad as she is? But Trish is really good at convincing and I already agreed and then I would feel bad backing out and even Kira wants to do this because she thinks it's the only thing that will make Tilly stop or at least make her feel as bad as she's been making Kira feel and technically we aren't really doing anything to harm her or anything but since she's so obsessed with you we thought that maybe it would hurt her feelings to see you dating somebody else because then she would know that, besides the obvious fact that you don't like her, she really can't chase after you without everybody knowing that she wants to steal somebody else's boyfriend and then _she_ would be the bad guy and everyone would know that she's awful and – and then we thought that what would _really_ annoy her is if the person you were dating just so happened to be somebody she hated and – well – that person is me!" She rambled, barely taking a moment to take a breath. Ally swallowed and stole a glance at him. His eyes were wide, trying to process everything she had just said. She bit her lip and looked down. "So… Trish just… Trish just thought that if you pretended to be my boyfriend… it would annoy Tilly so much that she would either stop being mean to Kira, or she would do something that would show _everybody_ what a brat she is and she would finally get in trouble for being such a bully."

Ally took a deep breath and after a few moments dared to look up at him. She almost felt offended by the amused look she found on his face. They stared at each other for a few moments, each daring the other to break the silence first, before a smile split his face and he shook his head with a laugh.

"So that's what Kira meant by 'Trish has a revenge plan', huh?" He asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Umm… Yeah."

Austin held his hand out. "Alright. Deal."

She blinked in surprise at his outstretched hand. "Wh-what?"

He chuckled. "Uh… People generally handshake when they make deals, right? I'm so in. Anything to get Tilly off my back. Did you know that she comes to my house and asks my parents about me? It makes me wanna call the police on her or something. She's uh – a little bit – _crazy_."

Ally cracked a dry smile as she shook his hand. "Oh, believe me. I know she's crazy. She's held a grudge on me ever since _kindergarten_ because the teacher liked my butterfly song more than her ladybug song. That's not even something that's my fault or anything."

Austin leaned in conspiratorially and glanced around as though looking for anybody who might eavesdrop. "Okay," he whispered, "but just between you and me, she _does_ know that your songs are on a completely different level to the rest of us?"

She rolled her eyes and swatted him. "Shut up, no they aren't."

"You kidding me? Top of the class, full marks on every assignment, and you think your songs aren't amazing? _Ally_ ," he tutted, shaking his head.

Ally shook her head with a smile. "Alright, cool it, Rockstar. There's nothing here that flattery can get you," she joked.

"Not even this guitar?" He teased back, waggling his eyebrows and gesturing to his recent purchase.

"I thought you wouldn't want to have wasted all that time saving up," she quipped dryly.

"Well, I could use the money to take my beautiful fake-girlfriend on a very extravagant and fancy fake-date," he informed her.

"Your fake-girlfriend fake-hates fake-dates."

"…Does that mean you actually like dates?"

"That's for your fake-ass to decide."

"Rude! This booty is all real," he said, turning around and emphatically gesturing to his butt. Ally's cheeks grew hot and she quickly looked away.

"Don't just – Au-Austin! Put your butt away!"

"Are you saying you don't think my butt is nice? I'm fake-offended," he huffed, looking over his shoulder and wiggling his hips a little.

"No – that's not – that's n-not what I'm saying –"

"So you're saying that my butt _is_ nice? Aw, Alls," Austin gushed.

"No – I mean – yes – but – no – just – just put your butt away!" She exclaimed.

Austin winked at her and slapped his butt, licking his lips suggestively. "You can stare if you like. You get fake-benefits as my fake-girlfriend. That includes staring."

Ally groaned and buried her face behind her hands. "I have a feeling that I'm going to regret agreeing to this plan."

She heard Austin chuckle and felt him pat her on the head, and she peeked out between her fingers to see him grinning at her. She smiled in exasperation at him and moved her hands from her face with a sigh.

"So…. You sure you don't wanna touch my butt?" Austin questioned seriously, though she could tell he was still joking.

At that moment, the bell tinkled indicating a new customer, and Ally glanced around to see Trish and Kira staring at them. Trish looked unimpressed and Kira had her hands clapped to her mouth with her eyes wide excitement.

"If she wanted to touch your butt, I'm sure she would have by now," Trish drawled.

"Touch his butt! Do it! Touch his butt! Are you guys _dating_?!" Kira exclaimed, squealing and sprinting at them.

"No, we aren't!" Ally exclaimed in horror at the same time that Austin smirked and said, "yes, we are."

" _What_?!" Everybody except for Austin exclaimed. Ally was mortified, Trish looked intrigued, and Kira just looked excited.

Austin shrugged, and hopped over the counter and draped his arm over Ally's shoulders, pulling her into his side. "I guess we're officially a couple. Right, Alls?" He teased, looking infuriatingly smug as he smirked down at her.

Kira squealed again.

"No – no, not like that!" Ally exclaimed, looking flustered. She just _knew_ she was blindingly red. "It's – it's for the plan! I told him about the – it's just – fake!" She managed to get out. She felt Austin rub his hand soothingly up and down on her upper arm.

"Shh, baby, nothing about this is fake," he whispered in her ear.

Ally's eyebrows shot up and she swatted at him. "Qu-Quit it!" She squawked, hoping he wouldn't notice the way her breathing accelerated when he leaned in close like that.

"This is amazing," Trish decided, sitting down and watching with a bemused expression. "So you're in on the plan, huh Austin?"

The blond nodded with a smile, still with his arm wrapped around Ally. "Yup. I'm cool with it. Hopefully it'll make Tilly stop harassing me. Besides, there are worse ways to spend my time than to pretend I'm dating a beautiful girl."

Kira let out a squeal. Trish rolled her eyes. Ally blushed.

 _Yup,_ she thought, _definitely going to regret agreeing to this._

* * *

 **A/N: YAS! I promised you all that Austin was in safe hands. Lil baby isn't going to be hurt by fake dating shenanigans. (I can't promise he won't be hurt at all tho) ((Actually I can promise that)) (((OR CAN I)))**

 **Replies:**

Chubby bunny: Austin calling her a perv or teasing her in general is literally my favourite part about writing this HAHA

LilyEHP: Aw! I do try my best to slip in as much humour as possible to keep things entertaining, so I'm so glad to see that it's working. Keep laughing! It's good for your heart haha.

ScorpioSmile: I like to try and keep the characters as close to the show as possible since this _is_ fanfiction, so it's great to see that I'm doing a good job with that. I relate to the Starbucks lady on a spiritual level. I wish Ally hadn't been lame and had kisSED AUSTIN ON THE LIPS INSTEAD OF THE CHEEK WHAT A TEASE. And woah! I had no idea about that bunny thing lmao that's actually fabulous. Kira is probably my favourite side character, so I absolutely _hate_ writing her like a bitch, I always really loved her and Ally's friendship. But yaas. Hopefully this chapter was just as exciting. If you like the thought of them kissing, I have a feeling you're going to like the next chapter…. ;)

itsyogirlHudsss: YOU ARE TOO KIND MY DEAR.

Axswiftxa13: WELL, luckily nobody interrupted Ally in telling him about the plan, huh? I hope you liked the chapter ^_^ I TOLD YOU I WOULD PROTECT AUSTIN.

Dont-Stop-Believin: I feel like the old lady represents literally all of us.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hello friends! After this there are only 4 more chapters :o But keep an eye out for my toher fics! I started a superhero AU and I have a few others in the works so if you like my writing style or you're interested in fantasy AUs then keep an eye out! Woohoo!**

 **Word count: 5874**

* * *

"And, I mean, it's not like it's that hard to pretend I'm smitten with her and that I really like her because all of that's true. I basically get to date her until she likes me and then _really_ date her, you know?" Austin grinned at Dez and Jace over the pizza tower.

They exchanged a glance and wrinkled their noses. Jace ran a hand through his hair while Dez leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"So let me get this straight," Jace started. "You have an embarrassingly huge crush on Ally – which _Dez_ knew about, but _I_ didn't," he grumbled pettily, "and now she's asked you to fake-date her to piss off Tilly. But you're just happy because you get to basically treat her like your girlfriend even though she isn't. And me and Dez aren't _actually_ supposed to know about this, but you told us anyway."

"Yup," Austin said, popping the 'p' and reaching for a slice of pizza.

"That doesn't sound very much like you. Except maybe that last bit."

"What do you mean?"

Jace shrugged and leaned back. "You're more of a YOLO kinda guy than that. You're kinda… impulsive? I've never seen you stop and think super hard about things you really want."

Austin frowned, unsure if he should be offended. "Are you saying I'm like, an airhead or something?"

His friend looked thoughtful.

"Yes," Dez decided.

"No, no, I don't think he's an airhead," Jace said, rolling his eyes at Dez. "I just mean that you're more spontaneous. Usually when you like a girl you ask her out – but with Ally, you've just been becoming her friend and waiting for the right moment. You usually _make_ the right moment."

Austin shrugged. "That's because with the other girls it was obvious they liked me back, so I knew I wouldn't get rejected. If I asked Ally out right now, she'd probably get embarrassed and flustered and then say 'yes' out of pure awkwardness. I don't want her to say 'yes' because she doesn't want things to be weird between us, I want her to say 'yes' because she likes me back, I guess."

Dez nodded his agreement. Austin was beginning to think his friend was mostly just agreeing with everything being said.

"Well…" Jace sighed and took a bite of the pizza. "Just… don't get too wrapped up in this. If she really doesn't like you, like you seem to think, then this is just going to end with you feeling like you just had a break up and her not even knowing. Just be careful about this, man."

The blond rolled his eyes. Dez seemed to take this silence as an opportunity to start babbling about Carrie, while Jace and Austin ate their pizza silently. He wondered if his friend was right. He wondered if Ally liked him. He wondered why he was so afraid of being rejected by her.

Maybe he liked Ally a lot more than he thought.

* * *

Monday afternoon. Lunchtime. _Game time._

When Austin spotted Ally, she was standing on her tiptoes and struggling to fit her textbook into the top shelf of her locker. He smirked and swaggered his way over to her before standing behind her and reaching around her to take the textbook from her hands, easily slotting it into her locker for her. Ally's whole body stiffened against his chest, her arms still frozen in the air from where she'd been trying to reach the shelf, and he casually placed his hands over hers and lowered them to her sides. He couldn't see her face, but judging from the flustered squeak she let out, she was probably blushing. Just to mess with her a little, Austin leaned down so his mouth was beside her ear. "You're welcome," he said huskily, immensely pleased when she shivered. Ally spun around and Austin caged her between him and the lockers by pressing his hands against the lockers on either side of her, giving her a cocky smirk.

"Um – umm – th-thank you," Ally squawked, and a quick glance at her rosy cheeks confirmed that she was, indeed, blushing.

"No problem," he grinned.

Ally fidgeted with her hands, looking around awkwardly. "Um… Can you… Can you move, please?" She asked. "Kira and Trish are waiting," she explained. "You – I mean – of course, you can – you can join us."

Austin laughed and took a step back to free her, and she quickly closed her locker before turning to face him again. She gave him a grateful smile and gestured awkwardly to motion which way they were going – but he wasn't having any of that. He reached for her hand and laced their fingers together, tugging her towards the cafeteria.

"Austin!" She hissed, her eyes bright with embarrassment. "What are you doing!?"

"Walking?" He suggested innocently, batting his eyelashes at her.

She gestured vaguely to their hands, her cheeks still flushed. Ally grunted as she followed him, clearly not sure how to ask him why he was holding her hand.

"What is it, Lassie?" He joked. He decided that, perhaps, he was enjoying this too much. "Gee, I think she's trying to tell us something!"

Ally huffed, but didn't say anything further, but to Austin's relief she didn't pull her hand away either.

When they reached the cafeteria, Austin was surprised to see that Dez, Carrie, and Jace were already sitting with Trish and Kira. He figured that his boys had known he would be sitting with the girls today.

"Hey!" Ally greeted Trish and Kira enthusiastically, sitting down beside Kira. "Sorry I'm late. _Austin_ held me up," she said, glaring at him.

The blond shrugged, unaffected, and sat down in the chair beside Ally and took out his lunch. The chair scraped loudly as he pulled it closer to the brunette, and he casually leaned back with one arm draped over the back of her chair. It was then that it occurred to him that Jace was doing the exact same thing as him, only with Trish. _Hm._ Maybe his boys weren't sitting there because of him.

"What are you doing _now_?" She asked, exasperated, twisting in her seat to glare at him.

Austin casually took a huge bite of his sandwich and shrugged again.

"Austin!" She whined.

He swallowed and chuckled, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. "People have to think we're dating, right?" He asked so only she could hear. She blushed, and he smirked as he leaned back.

"But you can't just… but I… I guess that's – but you – I - _ugh,_ " she sighed, glaring at Kira when the cheerleader let out an amused snigger. Ally pouted at Austin. "You're enjoying this too much."

"Maybe," he said nonchalantly, winking at her before taking another bite of his sandwich. She let out another little grunt but didn't complain any further.

He hadn't realised that Dez had been watching the whole exchange with what he had come to known as his 'contemplative' face. He wondered what was going through his friend's mind, but thoughts of Dez shot straight out of his mind when his arm suddenly felt warm and he realised that Ally was leaning back against her chair and his arm. Austin's eyes went wide and he grinned before moving his arm from the back of her chair to circle her shoulders. He wondered if the thump of his heart was audible when she hesitantly relaxed against his side and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Aw, you guys," Kira gushed, making Ally blush wildly and hide her face in his chest. He felt like he would explode with how cute she was.

"Shut up!" Ally whined, and he could feel her warm breath through his shirt.

"Holy shit, you're adorable," he breathed unconsciously, unable to hold it in. She pulled her face back just enough that he could only see those big brown eyes peeking up at him shyly, before she squeezed them shut and buried her face in his chest again.

Oh, yeah. He was _totally_ going to enjoy this.

* * *

"And, I mean, obviously you know the four steps of mathematical induction or whatever, so there's no point in me telling you them. I think you should try this example," Ally said, pushing forward a sheet of paper, "and when you're done, give it back and I'll see how you went. Then I'll know what part you're having trouble with," she explained. "I'm almost done with our essay, so while you do that, I'll do this, okay?"

Austin gave a noncommittal shrug and inspected the page curiously. She seemed to take this as a 'yes', because she nodded and glided across the room in her wheelie chair, grabbing her computer desk to stop and booting up her laptop. Austin let out a little grumble as he stared at the maths question in his lap, but he was grateful that she was still willing to take time out of her studying schedule to help him with this. The least he could do was actually complete the work she set him so that she knew he appreciated it and wasn't taking her for granted.

When he was finished, he gave her the sheet, and lay down on her bed as he watched her look through his work. He felt slightly embarrassed, knowing that she was critiquing everything he was writing – he certainly did not want her to think that he was stupid, but he knew that he needed her help if he wanted to get good enough marks for MUNY.

To distract himself from his embarrassment, he decided to focus on something else, instead. Like, the way that her hair cascaded down her back, or the way she tapped the pen pensively against her lips. Her lips looked especially full today, extra kissable. He wasn't too familiar with different kinds of make-up, but he was pretty sure she was wearing matte pink, or maybe it was called nude. All he knew was that he giggled whenever his mother mentioned 'nude shades'.

Regardless, her lips looked kissable, and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to get a few kisses out of this fake-dating experience.

"So, how d'you wanna make things 'official'?" He asked casually, standing and moving to hover near her.

"Hmm?" She asked, distracted. Her tongue peeked out between her lips in concentration as she checked his calculations.

"You know. You and me," he grinned, peering over her shoulder. He felt a deep sense of satisfaction at the little red ticks she had placed on the first two steps. "When are we going to make it clear to everyone at school that we're, you know, 'dating'. Or, I guess, how will we make it clear to Tilly?"

"Oh, um…" She scribbled out one of his calculations and wrote a correction beside it, before placing another neat tick beside the rest of his work. She skimmed through the final statement and put another tick before looking back up at him. "I guess I hadn't thought about that. I've never really had to make my relationship status publicly official," she pointed out.

"Neither have I," he confessed, chuckling and rubbing the back of his neck. "Usually rumours just spread and if it's true I won't do anything but if it's not I have to shut it down."

Ally swivelled her chair so that she was facing him, her glasses glinting in the light. Austin rubbed his chin thoughtfully, trying to figure out what they should do. He got an idea and smirked at her wolfishly.

"I have an idea."

"I figured," Ally said flatly, eyeing him warily. "Should I be afraid?"

"Of course not!"

"Alright, Rockstar, what is it?" She asked, leaning her elbow on her desk and dropping her head into her hand as she stared up at him.

"We should totally get caught making out."

Ally rolled her eyes with a small laugh. "Very funny. What's your real plan?"

Austin met her gaze seriously. "That _is_ my real plan." He looked offended. "I happen to think it's a very good plan!" He exclaimed haughtily.

"You just want to make-out," she said, folding her arms across her chest and studying him dubiously. "I think a fake make-out is dumb," she decided. She leaned back in her chair, one long leg crossed over the other, and Austin wanted nothing more than to uncross her legs and show her just how real a make-out he could give her.

"It's not dumb," he protested. "It's a subtle way of announcing we're together without telling people that we are. They see us kissing, they'll connect the dots. Duh."

She pursed her lips thoughtfully, assessing his suggestion. Ally groaned and took off her glasses, rubbing at her eyes. "That actually made sense," she complained, pressing her palms against her face. "And I can't think of a better way to 'make it official'," she admitted, dropping her hands to her lap and looking up at him with bleary eyes.

"So… is that a yes?" He smirked at her.

Ally surprised him by looking at him coyly. "If you think you can handle it," she said, batting her eyelashes.

And heck, he'd be an idiot if he didn't take her up on that flirty invitation – and Austin Moon was no idiot.

"I can handle a lot, chatterbox," he said, folding his arms and looking down his nose at her. "I think it's _you_ who can't handle it. I'm all, like, tall and strong and stuff, and you're all short and dainty. No way could you handle _all this_ ," he teased, puffing out his chest importantly.

She raised an eyebrow at him and slowly rose to her feet, as though trying to intimidate him. She seemed to realise instantly that she only reached his collarbones, but she didn't back down. Instead, she schooled her face into an incredibly coy expression that he hadn't even known she was capable of, and reached up to rest her hands on his chest. "Hmmm…" She mused, watching her hands as she casually ran them down his chest and to his stomach. "No, I think I could definitely handle _all this_ ," she decided, looking up at him innocently through her eyelashes.

Austin swallowed. Maybe she was right – maybe it _was_ him he couldn't handle it. But he was too stubborn to simply let her win – so, with a smirk, her wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her snugly against his chest. She squeaked in surprise and immediately blushed, and he couldn't help but feel smug that he had such an instantaneous effect on her. "Maybe you're right," he said, before leaning down so that they were nose-to-nose. "Maybe I can't handle it. Maybe we should practice and make sure that I can," he said huskily.

Ally squeaked and looked at him with wide eyes, her cheeks flushed and her fingers unconsciously gripping the fabric of his shirt against his abs.

"Can I take that as a yes?" He teased, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Um – y-yes?" Ally squeaked again, blinking rapidly, before she cleared her throat and nervously took a step back. She tripped over the computer chair in her haste and flailed for a moment before Austin caught her around the waist and steadied her.

"So… Tomorrow at school, then?" He asked cheekily.

Ally looked confused. "T-Tomorrow?"

"The kissing thing? Keep up, Alls," he laughed, stepping backwards and moving back to sit on her bed.

She looked stunned and for a moment, disappointment flashed across her face. "Right. Tomorrow. For the, um... _fake_ announcement…"

"I mean, unless you want to make out right now," he offered nonchalantly. He may have only been half-joking.

Her cheeks lit up brilliantly and she shook her head at the same time that a smile grew on her face. "Austin!" She scolded.

He laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. He was mostly just glad that she had calmed down. "Just kidding!"

She let out a little grumble, but was still smiling, even as she plucked his paper off the desk and sat on the bed beside him to show him what he did wrong and what he needed do to correct it. Austin was more than happy to listen to her, but he was more absorbed in the way her lips moved and how much he wished that they were moving against his.

* * *

What was he doing? He wasn't even sure himself. He'd shown up outside her house before school, but he hadn't told her he was coming. For all he knew, she had a ride with somebody else. But he knew he'd seen her walking to school before, so he was pretty sure that she didn't have a ride with anybody. Austin stared at her front door, waiting for her to come out, before his nerves got to him and he jumped out of his car, walked up to her front door, and knocked on it.

An excruciatingly long moment passed where he decided that, yes, he _would_ die from embarrassment if any of her neighbours happened to poke their head out and see him waiting there, before the door suddenly swung open. He smiled in relief, opening his mouth to greet Ally, before he realised that it was not the petite brunette in front of him, but rather, a balding, middle-aged man.

"Whatever you're selling, I don't want it," the man – who Austin assumed to be Ally's father – said gruffly. His eyes lit up. "But does the door-to-door thing work? Do you make a lot of money with that?"

"Oh – um –" Austin cleared his throat, awkwardly running a hand through his hair. "I'm not – I'm not, like, a door-to-door salesman. I'm actually here to see if Ally wanted a lift to school?" He managed to get out.

His gaze turned sharp as he critically stared Austin up and down. "Why do you want to see if my daughter wants a lift to school?" He asked suspiciously.

"I mean – it's just – I realised that you guys live kind of on my way to school – I mean, it's only a three minute detour to swing by – so I figured – you know – why – why not? She's been helping me with my maths so much that – I guess – I just – I felt like I owed her?" His voice was rising in pitch with every word, feeling more and more uncomfortable under her dad's scrutinising gaze.

Seemingly satisfied with his explanation, her dad pursed his lips. "She's already left for school. She left about ten minutes ago," he explained.

"What?" Austin asked, blinking dumbly.

He rolled his eyes. "She left ten minutes ago. It takes longer to walk than to drive, and since she didn't say anything about anyone coming to pick her up, I'm assuming she didn't know you were coming."

Austin shifted uncomfortably. "…That would be correct, Mr Dawson."

"Well… Maybe next time try letting her know first," he suggested, eyebrows raised. Lester gave a little wave. "If that's all, then bye," he said bluntly, before closing the door.

How awkward! Austin blinked in shock and waddled back to his car, wondering why he hadn't factored in that Ally would have already left by now.

He drove along despondently, but his spirits lifted instantly when he saw her familiar backpack and her long brown hair tumbling ungracefully over it. Austin grinned and rolled down the window.

"Hey, sexy stranger," he called out playfully. After all, they were pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, right?

Ally whipped around in surprise, before giving him a small smile and a little wave. "Hey, stranger" she called back, equally as playful.

"Want a lift?" He asked, already pulling up beside her.

"My dad always told me not to get into cars with strangers," Ally said defiantly, though she was already walking towards his car.

"Does that rule apply to hot strangers?" Austin wondered out loud.

Ally opened the door and climbed in, cracking a sly grin. "Nah."

He could hardly believe that Ally was really flirting so openly with him. Austin waggled his eyebrows, looking impossibly pleased. "Ah. You're saying I'm hot," he observed smugly.

"I'm saying you're not a stranger," she observed wisely.

"So… I'm not hot?" He pouted at her.

Ally shrugged noncommittally. "Are you gonna drive or what?"

"What a gold digger," Austin teased, pulling back into the road and continuing the drive to school. "Only using me for my car."

"Hey, I'm a girl who knows what she wants, and she knows she wants your fancy, hand-me-down truck that looks like it's been through the junkyard twice. Real classy."

"My truck's been through a lot more than that," Austin said, slapping the dashboard heartily. "She's a fighter."

"Both hands on the wheel!" Ally whined, clutching at her seatbelt.

Austin rolled his eyes, but followed her wishes nonetheless. "You know, if we were actually dating, I could be holding your hand right now," he stated.

"That's dangerous. You need to have both hands on the wheel."

"I'm quite the multitasker," he argued. "I can do a lot of things with one hand."

Ally let out a squeak. "Ex _cuse_ me?" She spluttered, her cheeks turning red.

Austin quickly glanced at her, confused. "What?" He didn't understand what had gotten her flustered.

She gestured vaguely, looking even more embarrassed. "Oh – did you not – did you not mean that in… in like… a – um – se-e _x ual_ way?" She stuttered.

Austin's eyes widened when he got what she was getting at. "Ally! Get your mind out of the gutter!" He scolded, but he was smiling. She let out another embarrassed squeak, so he decided to tease her a little. He turned and cracked half a smile. "I mean, I _could_. I could totally have one hand on the wheel and be doing naughty stuff to you with the other if we were dating."

"Oh – you're disgusting," she scoffed, pointedly crossing one leg over the other and looking away. Her red cheeks told him otherwise.

"You're the one who took it dirty," he pointed out, smirking.

"J-Just shut up! Drivers need to be focussed on the road, not saying disgusting things to their passengers," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Passengers need to be grateful instead of accusing their driver of being disgusting," he countered.

"…Shut up!" Ally whined. He couldn't help but think she was adorable.

Once they were at school, he grabbed her hand and led her inside. He was pleased that she didn't seem to mind, and was getting used to this now. She even tugged him along a little, pulling him towards her lockers with a huge smile set firmly in place. Ally opened her locker and then pouted expectantly at Austin, flickering her gaze upwards to the textbooks in the top shelf. She batted her eyelashes – and Austin was fairly sure that she knew that he couldn't say no to her.

"Why did they give you such a tall locker?" He laughed, easily pulling the books out for her. She sifted through them and handed some back to him to slot back into her locker. "You're a midget. This is injustice. _My_ locker is on the floor."

Ally shrugged, putting her books into her backpack before zipping it up and swinging it back over her shoulder. "I mean, it's not like they knew whether we'd be tall or short when they assigned us our lockers," she pointed out. Ally closed her locker and turned to face him. "Thanks for getting my books out for me," she chirped, smiling cutely at him.

Austin took this opportunity to slyly slink one arm around her waist, pulling her towards him. "Do I get a thank you gift?" He asked suggestively.

"Don't be gross," Ally giggled, wrinkling her nose and shoving him lightly in the chest. He noted smugly that she didn't pull away, though, and even though he knew she was only letting him hold her and flirt with her like this for the sake of the plan, he couldn't help but feel as though they were just being themselves.

"I'm not being gross!" He protested, settling his other arm around her waist as well and resting both his hands just on the top of the waistband of her jeans. The lower half of her body bowed into his as her hands came to rest neatly against his chest. "Besides, don't you remember what we talked about yesterday?"

Ally blushed. "O-Oh, ha-ha," she said sarcastically. "We both know you were kidding about that. You're not _really_ gonna do it."

Austin raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I was joking, was I? Hmm…" He gave her an innocent smile, leaning his face unnecessarily close to hers. "I don't think that I was…"

Her eyes went wide and dropped momentarily to his lips before flickering back up to meet his smug gaze. Ally's breathing sped up just the slightest and her cheeks coloured with embarrassment. "Shut up. I'm not gonna pay you back for taking my books out of my locker."

Oh, she was _totally_ enjoying this.

"Don't you remember what that old lady in Starbucks said? About the best way to pay me back?" He reminded her.

"Austin!" She whined, pouting up at him.

"Ally!" He whined back, making a silly face at her.

"Oh. My. _God_." Somebody nearby uttered the words in a disgusted whisper.

Both Ally and Austin turned their heads to see Tilly Thompson standing with her entourage, a revolted look on her face.

Immediately, Ally's expression hardened into a bored stare. "May we help you?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Sweetie, he's clearly uncomfortable," Tilly said patronisingly, gesturing to Austin – who was definitely more comfortable than he'd ever been with _her_.

"Um, no, I'm not uncomfortable," Austin piped up awkwardly, not particularly wanting to be dragged into this girl fight. He reflected thoughtfully that by agreeing to the plan, that was exactly what he was being dragged into.

"Let him go," Tilly said, crossing her arms over her chest and ignoring Austin. "You can't just come onto him without his permission, especially if he makes it obvious that he doesn't want you. That's just rude."

Ally's nostrils flared, clearly offended that Tilly was accusing her of molesting him. "Excuse me?" She said, pulling from Austin's arms and taking a step towards Tilly. Austin let out a grunt of disappointment.

"You heard me," the blonde said, taking a step towards Ally as well, blonde curls bouncing as she tipped her head to one side. "The boy's terrified of you. Leave him alone."

" _Yeah_ ," her entourage chorused.

"I'm not terrified of Ally!" Austin protested again, awkwardly moving behind her.

"He's so scared of you that he's even pretending he's not," Tilly gasped, one hand over her mouth.

Ally's brows furrowed. "…That doesn't even make any sense," she said, bewildered.

"Look," Tilly said, stepping forward so she was nose-to-nose with Ally. "I get it. It's the last few months of high school. You want to have a fling with the hottest and most popular boy so that you have a story to tell the other old people at the nursing home when you one day inevitably end up alone. But Austin doesn't want you because you're a _nobody_."

"Tilly, that's a little rude," one of her entourage mumbled, immediately looking at the floor when Tilly glared at her.

"I mean –" Ally began, but Austin cut her off. He was fuming. He couldn't believe that anybody could say such mean and awful things to someone, let alone to somebody as sweet and wonderful as his Ally, and he was going to make sure Tilly knew that he didn't think it was cool.

"I _do_ want Ally," Austin declared. "To me, she's somebody, and I happen to like her very much."

"Shh, Austy," Tilly cooed, reaching up to pet his hair. "You don't know what you're saying. Clearly she's spiked one of your drinks or something. This isn't you. C'mon, let's go," she said, reaching for his hands.

"Tilly, I think you're pushing it a little too far," another one of the freshmen piped up, shifting uncomfortably and looking away when Tilly glared at her as well.

Austin rolled his eyes and turned to Ally. "Don't let Tilly's words get to you," he murmured, feeling outrageously chivalrous. Gosh, he thought he was cool! He looked at her with shining eyes, thinking that he was certainly her knight in shining armour.

"Uh, I wasn't going to," Ally said, brows furrowed. "She always comes here and says this kind of stuff. It doesn't really affect me," she shrugged, nonplussed.

Austin deflated a little bit. "So… you didn't need me to rescue you?" He pouted.

"Not really. She does this, like, everyday," she said. Ally paused, before grinning up at him. "But it was sweet that you wanted to."

He decided that it didn't matter that she didn't need him to rescue her.

"Um, barf," Tilly said, wrinkling her nose. "Austin Moon, you could do so much better," she stated, turning to him. She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "You're going to lose all your popularity if you keep making heart eyes at that piece of trash."

Austin's jaw dropped. He opened his mouth to defend Ally's honour, but he wasn't good with words. He didn't know what to say other than 'Ally's great', and somehow, he didn't think that was a very good comeback. "As if anybody could do better than Ally," he scoffed lamely. Words were not his forte – he was a firm believer that actions spoke louder than words. On impulse, he did the only thing that he thought could possibly nail into Tilly's head that he liked Ally, that he wanted her and knew that she was more wonderful than any other girl he had ever known. Most importantly, he wanted Tilly to know that he wasn't interested in her or in the mean things she had to say.

He placed both hands on Ally's face and pulled her towards him before crashing his lips onto hers.

"Aus— _mmf_!" Ally exclaimed in surprised, cut off by his mouth working against hers. He didn't care that she knew how to deal with this. He didn't care that she was unaffected by Tilly's words. He wanted her to know that she was smart and talented and that he could be there for her, if she wanted.

His fingers curled gently against her jaw, thumbs rubbing soothing circles against her cheekbones, and he swore that his heart just about burst out of his chest when she hesitantly rubbed her hands against his back and kissed him back. One of his hands moved from her face, the backs of his fingers brushing lightly against the delicate curve of her neck, before his fingertips traced down the indents of her spine. His palm rested flat against the small of her back and pulled her tiny body into his, his tongue tracing the dips and contours of those lips he'd been daydreaming about for so long as he finally, _finally_ got to kiss her. He could feel her lips moving tentatively against his, one of her hands clutching at the fabric of his shirt and the other tracing down the curve of _his_ spine, before settling against his hip. Austin felt as though he were a live wire, drinking her electricity as his tongue entered her mouth and he pulled her more firmly against him.

" _Mr Moon and Miss Dawson_!" Ms Suzy exclaimed loudly, sounding quite scandalised. "You are on _school grounds_ ," she scolded.

Austin let his lips tug Ally's once more before he reluctantly pulled away. He had almost forgotten why he'd kissed her in the first place, too wrapped up in the taste of her lips to remember petty details like the audience they had. Her lip gloss was smudged and mostly rubbed off, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide and dark as she looked at him, before she ducked her head in embarrassment and turned to Ms Suzy with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, bowing to her. Austin resisted the urge to laugh.

Ms Suzy looked uncomfortable and glanced around, before nudging Ally. "It's okay, Ally-gator. Stop bowing, would you? It's fine. I understand that you kids get carried away. Just try to keep it PG on school grounds, okay? I'll let you both off with a warning this time, but if I catch you again, I'm going to have to give you a detention," she warned.

"Understood, Miss," Austin said, nodding respectfully towards her. She smiled at the two of them before leaving.

Tilly rolled her eyes, scoffing. "I can't believe the two of you," she said scornfully. "Austin, this is getting ridiculous. Making out with another girl in front of me? To make me jealous? That's going way too far. Especially with someone like _Ally Dawson_."

Austin smiled bashfully at Ally. He couldn't believe he'd really just kissed her.

Tilly's entourage parted, and a head of strawberry blonde emerged.

"Hey, Tilly?" Cassidy said sweetly, tapping on her shoulder.

The blonde turned and threw Cassidy an impossibly fake smile. "Cass! What's up?" She chirped.

"You're a bitch," Cassidy smiled cheerfully, nodding. "And I'm surprised nobody else has told you yet. Austin dumped you ages ago and you're being pathetic and disgusting. Seriously. Leave before you embarrass yourself further. I'm about _this_ close to dying from second-hand embarrassment," she informed her, pinching her fingers together to demonstrate.

Beside Austin, Ally snorted and hid her face in his arm to stifle it. Cassidy threw Tilly another cheerful smile and then gave Austin and Ally a little wave before leaving, humming to herself. The bell rang, and Tilly's entourage awkwardly pushed Tilly away, leaving the two of them alone.

"Do you need to go to your locker?" Ally asked, looking up and biting her lip shyly. Austin's eyes dropped to her lips.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"Let's go, then. We have English together," she reminded him, reaching for his hand and giving him another shy smile.

"Okay," he said, unable to contain the huge grin on his face. She started to pull him towards his lockers.

"You're a really good actor, by the way," she murmured, looking away in embarrassment. "Good thinking with the kiss thing. Trish's plan is – um – doing really well."

Austin raised both his eyebrows, chuckling slightly. "Sure," he said, shaking his head with a smile. If she wanted to call that acting, then he'd let her.

"By the way," Ally said, clearing her throat and finally raising her eyes to meet his again with a coy smile. "Nice lip gloss you're wearing. I have more in my bag, if you wanted to touch up."

He touched his lips in surprise, realising that Ally's lip gloss was smeared across his lips.

"Thanks," he said dryly, but he couldn't keep the smugness out of his voice. "I'd rather steal the rest from your lips," he joked.

Ally rolled her eyes and shoved him, giggling a little before tugging on his hand harder to hurry him up, clearly wanting to get to English quickly. The thought crossed Austin's mind that he'd go anywhere as long as her hand was in his.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm sorry that I'm so slow with updates in general – I do full-time at uni and recently got a new job so I'm usually pretty busy. Thank you all for sticking with me through this and I promise to try and get the next chapter up within the next couple of weeks hopefully.**

 **Replies to you lovely reviewers:**

unreal zebra: Hahahaha yaas! Ally's gonna be in denial for like quite some time but at least we get a lot of Austin knowing how much he's in love with her. AND AUSTIN CAN'T WAIT FOR THEM TO BE IN A REAL RELATIONSHIP EITHER LMAO

letmetakeyourpicturebaby: Omg the butt scene was literally my favourite and I was laughing the whole time that I was writing Austin trying to get out of that situation. Thank you so much lovely, your review really made me happy!

Dont-Stop-Believin: Lmao the next chapter gets SUPER spicy in terms of catfights but from this point out it's pretty much just all fluff with a bit of sass

jcarter692: You are so sweet! I hope you've continued to enjoy the chapters and that it's met your expectations ahhh! It's so encouraging to read reviews like yours. I've been working hard on keeping the characters as close to canon as possible for this particular fiction so it's awesome to hear that I am.

xxSmileYoureBeautifulxx: jeez you know that makeout scene was literally for u

Guest: Aw thank you so much! I work hard on making sure my writing is coherent and entertaining so I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.

Guest: Hahahaha I'm not sure I quite understand the whole 'rivers belong with they can ramble' thing but I'm glad you're loving it! :D


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